Ethan Bamber

Ethan Bamber finished the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand as England's joint leading wicket-taker and began his county career while studying Theology at Exeter University, not out of any strong religious conviction, just because he finds religion intriguing.

Bamber is the son of two actors, David Bamber and Julia Swift: his father David played Hitler alongside Tom Cruise in the 2008 film Valkyrie. By his own admission, he was a "terrible" actor and with some input from his brother Theo he turned belatedly to cricket and first represented Middlesex at Under-15 level.

Bamber's development has been inconsistent, but is regarded as a "mini-Murts", a long-term successor to Middlesex's veteran seamer, Tim Murtagh. In the latter stages of the 2018 season, he took 28 wickets in six Division Two matches at 20.25, finding the accuracy that had at sometimes deserted him, unsurprisingly for one so young.

His opportunities were limited in 2019, but after a brief loan spell to Gloucestershire during the Cheltenham Festival, he achieved his maiden five-wicket haul in Middlesex's final match of the season against Derbyshire. He then regressed amid the Covid season of 2020, claiming a solitary wicket while struggling with his weight, but everything appeared to click in 2021, when he claimed 52 wickets at 20.84.

ESPNcricinfo staff