Years of waiting, then a call
England have handed Aneurin Donald a T20 international debut. The Derbyshire batter opens alongside Jos Buttler against Sri Lanka at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton, the first of three matches in the series. Phil Salt misses the whole assignment with a quad issue, and Brendon McCullum turned to a 29-year-old who has sat on the selectors’ radar for years without ever getting the call.
Donald hit 489 runs in 12 Vitality Blast games this summer, with four fifties. His 37 sixes led the tournament. Since the start of 2024 he has struck at 215.70 across 48 T20 innings, a rate beaten only by Indian teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi according to Cricinfo.
He also becomes the first homegrown Glamorgan player to represent England since Simon Jones, the seamer who tore through Australia in the 2005 Ashes.
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McCullum sees a version of Salt
The comparison came quickly from the head coach.
“Aneurin will open the batting with Jos, which is very exciting. He is a cricketer that has been on our radar for quite some time,” McCullum said. “He has a game where he can go from ball one, which is probably quite similar to Salty. He has got raw power and an incredible amount of talent.”
Donald’s route to this point ran through Glamorgan and Hampshire before Derbyshire, and The Hundred gave him a bigger stage. He smashed 38 from 19 balls for Trent Rockets in the final at Lord’s in August, in a losing cause against Buttler’s Manchester Super Giants. The man who beat him that night is now his opening partner.
A rebuilt top order
Harry Brook captains. Tom Banton, Jordan Cox and Will Jacks complete the top six, with Jamie Overton and Liam Dawson at seven and eight. Josh Tongue and Sonny Baker share the new ball, Adil Rashid the spin.
Jofra Archer is rested after playing all three Tests of the 3-0 sweep over Pakistan, which finished on Saturday. Tongue is likely to be given Thursday’s game in Cardiff off for the same reason. Jacob Bethell (knee) and Sam Curran (groin) are out of the series entirely.
Three T20s, then three one-day internationals starting in Durham on September 22. England’s white-ball autumn opens with a name almost nobody outside the county circuit had pencilled in.
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