When Sonny Baker was handed an England development contract after impressing for England Lions at the back-end of this winter, it came across as another punt taken on an up-and-coming young quick. Now, with whispers of a fast-track Ashes selection starting to grow in number, he’s been selected in England’s ODI squad to face South Africa next month, and his trajectory has stepped up a gear.
Taking a chance on Baker earlier this year felt like one of the bigger shows of faith this England management has taken with young players, albeit a month after handing Jacob Bethell – who has now been named as stand-in England T20I captain – a Test debut batting at No.3, before he had a first-class century to his name. Baker, for context, made his first-class debut on that Lions tour of Australia and had played a handful of List A games in 2021 and 2022, as well as three Hundred games. Every other player who, at that time, had an ECB development contract had already made their international debut.
Nevertheless, a five-for against a Cricket Australia XI, as well as 3-60 against Australia A were enough to put Baker among their number. In reality, it wasn’t those numbers that mattered. Baker is quick, and has been clocked well above 90mph. While he’s not consistently in that express bracket and usually sits in the late eighties, he visibly hurries batters even when operating at those speeds. “The speed gun may say 86, 87 miles per hour, but sometimes bowlers just feel a bit quicker, and he does seem to feel a bit quicker,” said Nasser Hussain in relation to Baker on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast this week.
Perhaps another point of difference behind Baker’s fast-track is his meticulous approach to his bowling development. He carries a notebook with him to training sessions and keeps an Excel spreadsheet tracking his workloads. While recovering from injury last year, he used his county teammates’ contacts network to make phone calls to Brett Lee and Shaun Tait and talk about bowling quick.
When he played his first matches for Hampshire earlier this summer, who he joined at the end of last season, why that faith had been shown was on display for all to see. He made headlines by dismissing Jonny Bairstow twice on Championship debut, and outshone other more experienced campaigners at The Oval the following week. There, it wasn’t just Baker’s pace, but the accuracy of his yorkers and hard graft for the five wickets he took, continuously mixing his lengths to create chances, which turned heads.
Sonny Baker took three wickets on his County Championship debut last week, dismissing Jonny Bairstow twice 🔥
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) April 9, 2025
The 90mph England prospect spoke to @Yas_Wisden before the season about how he uses spreadsheets and notebooks to improve his game 📒
🤝 @remitly pic.twitter.com/3V5iJUmIBp
There were murmurings after his early season success that, with several premier quicks out injured, Baker could be in line for a call-up against India, or perhaps more realistically, against Zimbabwe. In reality, India was a series too soon. There were too many unknowns and inconsistencies to justify that level of acceleration on Baker’s England career. A match against Durham in the early Championship showed that, where he conceded figures of 0-103 in 20 overs and a beamer slipped out late in the day. His speeds were also up and down, as you would expect from a young bowler in their first full season of red-ball cricket.
However, as the season has gone on, his upward curve has steepened. He took a second five-for with the Kookaburra ball in the final match of the Championship before its mid-summer break, taking wickets in bursts of speed crucially with an older ball. But, getting on TV in The Hundred and bowling an exhilarating 10 balls to David Warner, which produced five dots first up in the high eighties on the speed gun, saw him gain significant backing.
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“Anyone that’s got David Warner jumping around, when David Warner has that smirky smile at the end of the five, it’s not because he likes you – it was a ‘crickey, that was pretty good to be honest’, smirk and smile [that Warner] gave Sonny Baker,” said Hussain. “It was hostile stuff.”
“Could he be a bolter for the winter?” asked Michael Atherton.
That’s the golden question asked of every fast-bowler shooting up the pecking order the summer before an Ashes. What difference could they make in Australia to possibly avoid the nightmares of previous winters? Could those in the upper speed brackets be that difference to make Australia batters hop about, rattled as so many England batters have previously been peppered Down Under? But, in Baker’s case, there might be more to that question than desperation to avoid those familiar torments.
For one, he shone with the Kookaburra ball in the Championship, and it was his performance in Australia which saw him earn a development contract in the first place. Second, his skiddy style of late eighties pace perhaps suits current Australia pitches better than quicks who have been prioritised in the past. Equally, England may look to take an expanded pool of quicks this time around, to mitigate injuries and spread the workload of a long tour.
There is a concurrent England Lions series alongside the Ashes that you’d fancy Baker will be a part of, and the ODI series against South Africa gives him a further opportunity to win that status as a bolter into the ranks for England’s biggest series in over a decade. Should the call come at any point in the series, he’s made sure this summer that he’ll be in prime position to take it.
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