Ahead of the latest issue of the Wisden Cricket Monthly, which reveals the 40 best young male cricketers in the world, here is a look back at the 2019 list, and a few current stars who slipped through the cracks.
That list, like WCM's new one, was compiled with the aid of input from pundits, journalists and ex-players from all around the world. Rashid Khan took top spot then, with Rishabh Pant in second place. But you can't catch them all, with players developing at different rates, and some potential stars bound to slip under the radar. Here's eight players who were in the right age range but missed the cut in 2019 and are very much part of the conversation now.
Note: To be picked, players had to be aged 23 or under as of August 1, 2019. The list of those who missed out only includes players eligible for selection, who did not make the top 40.
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Blessing Muzarabani
Age on August 1, 2019: 22
Now 28, Muzarabani is near-on the first name on Zimbabwe's team sheet across formats, and this wasn't unforeseen. He'd broken into the Zimbabwe Test team by December 2017, and had a solid year in white-ball cricket in 2018. Unfortunately, Muzarabani did not play another Test until 2021, more an indictment on the cricketing schedule than the player himself.
Earlier this year, he became the fastest Zimbabwean to 50 Test wickets.
Gus Atkinson
Age on August 1, 2019: 21
Atkinson stole James Anderson's thunder on Test debut, and has had a ball of a time in international red-ball cricket so far. But in 2019, he was nowhere near the top 40 best young players in the world. The highest level a 20/21-year-old Atkinson had reached by that point was second XI cricket for Surrey.
READ: Wisden's Best Young Players in the World 2019, revisited: How did we get on?
Harry Brook
Age on August 1, 2019: 20
Now England's white-ball captain, it's incredible to think that Brook didn't make the top 40 in 2019, especially since he'd already led England at the U19 World Cup the previous year, and performed admirably with 239 runs at 119.5. He had also played five first-class matches before that tournament, but his high score was 38.
By the time the 2019 list was curated, Brook was yet to really catch the eye at senior level. It was post-Covid lockdown that he really began to shine in The Hundred, County Championship and Pakistan Super League, and won the PCA Young Player of the Year award in 2021. He debuted for England in January 2022 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Kamindu Mendis
Age on August 1, 2019: 20
Like Muzarabani, Mendis had also played senior international cricket by the time the 2019 list was finalised, debuting in T20Is in October 2018. At the time though, the talk around him was limited to his relative novelty as an ambidextrous spin bowler.
Prior to August 1, 2019, Mendis had played seven first-class matches, and was yet to score a century. Not unlike Brook, he took off post-2020 and his incredible start with the bat has been the story of Test cricket over the past 18 months or so.
Cameron Green
Age on August 1, 2019: 20
Green may not quite be a superstar yet, but his potential as a genuine all-rounder for Australia's Test side has been known for quite some time now. He debuted in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, not long after the 2019 list was published.
Where was he in 2019, you ask? He had seven Sheffield Shield games under his belt for Western Australia, and made his BBL debut for Perth Scorchers that January. Green took a five-for and six-for within his first five first-class matches in late 2018, but beyond that there was little indication of genuine future quality.
Pathum Nissanka
Age on August 1, 2019: 21
Nissanka has had an interesting international career, to say the least. Looking out of his depth early on in T20 cricket, his transformation post-2023 has well and truly put him in the conversation as one of the best all-format batters in the world at present. He is also the only Sri Lankan to score an ODI double century.
In 2019, he hadn't yet played for Sri Lanka, but there were signs of his potential. Nissanka averaged 68 from 43 first-class innings, before a run of 6, 0, 0, 5 against India A in May 2019 pushed it down to 61.
Zak Crawley
Age on August 1, 2019: 21
Crawley made his Test debut in November 2019, and since 2022 has been a mainstay at the top of England's batting order (although it somehow feels like his spot is always in question). In the first-class season just prior to his Test call-up, Crawley averaged in the mid-30s for Kent. His Test and first-class average hovers , six years later.
If it's hard to get a handle on where exactly he stands now, doing it in 2019 was even more difficult.
Wanindu Hasaranga
Age on August 1, 2019: 22
Hasaranga recently became the fastest player to complete the ODI double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, and that was the only international format he'd played by the start of 2019. Over the last half-decade or so, Hasaranga's steadily improved his white-ball skills, becoming somewhat of a specialist. He still has just four Tests to his name though, across 2020 and 2021, and he averages over 100 with the ball there.
He didn't have an exceptional record to speak of at the time of the 2019 list coming out (although he did take a hat-trick on debut), with nine wickets in nine games across 2017 and 2018, and limited batting opportunities.
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