Josh Hull: Leicestershire's Newest 'Teenage Sensation'

By Jon Culley, ECB Reporters' Network

Rehan Ahmed’s meteoric rise has seen the phrase ‘Leicestershire teenage sensation’ given plenty of mileage in cricket reports since England handed the Foxes prodigy a Test debut at the age of 18 years and 126 days in December last year.

Yet the leg-spinning phenomenon currently playing a starring role for Southern Brave in The Hundred is not the only young player who can claim ownership of that description.

Josh Hull - who is a week younger than Rehan - may have a little way to go before the England selectors think about giving him a call but his impact on his county’s fortunes has been equally dramatic, if not more so.

The 6ft 7ins left-arm seamer’s debut season has seen him take eight wickets in five first-class matches, six in the Vitality Blast and an impressive 14 in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, helping put the Foxes among the favourites to reach the knock-out stages with five group wins from six so far.

“It’s taken me a bit by surprise, if I’m honest,” Hull said of his explosive arrival as a senior Leicestershire player.

“After I was given a contract last October I was saying to people throughout the winter that I was not expecting to play a huge amount.

“But they put me in against Yorkshire in the first Championship game of the season and it has and it has just kicked on from there, getting a few Blast games and then this competition. It’s been great, I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Hull earned his two-year rookie contract after just one summer on the books at the Uptonsteel County Ground, having been recommended to Leicestershire by Dean Headley, the former England fast bowler who was Head of Cricket during Hull’s time at Stamford School.

Left-arm quick bowlers with the advantage of height are a valuable commodity in cricket and Leicestershire’s coaching team were impressed enough with what they saw of him in Under-18 and Second XI cricket to believe they could mould him into an effective senior player.

Yet even they have been slightly taken aback at how quickly he has been able to make his mark.

“When we looked at how he might evolve with the plan we had in place for him, I was quite excited about how he might look in three or five years’ time,” interim head coach Alfonso Thomas said.

“But the way his graph is going up at such a rapid pace I might have to shorten that to one or two years.

“He is such a coachable kid, too. He is very intense, which is not a bad thing. 

“He is a lot more tactically clued up than people might think for someone of that age, he is willing to learn and he is a fast learner too. As a bowler, if you can take those qualities forward you will go to some big places, for sure.”

Although he was born in Huntingdon, Hull’s home town is Oundle in Northamptonshire. He began his journey in the game with Oundle Cricket Club, where he started as a nine-year-old boy. He has still found time this season to turn out for their First XI in the Northamptonshire Senior League.

He went along to the club out of interest, more than through family members taking him, which is how so many youngsters are introduced to the game.

“My mother’s great uncle, Grenville Wilson, played some County Championship matches for Worcestershire in the 1950s, but no one in the immediate family played,” he said.

“When I practised in the garden, it was my grandma who would throw down balls for me.”

Even as a youngster, Hull was taller than average, steadily gaining height through the years, rather than having one notable growth spurt. Although he wouldn’t expect to grow any taller, nor need a bigger shoe than his current, whopping size 15, he feels that at 18 he can only get stronger - and quicker.

“I’ve been working in the gym to improve my core strength, mainly in the hope of avoiding too many back problems, but I’d like to gain a yard of pace too,” he said. Given that he already clocks probably in the mid-80s, that can only spell more danger for opposing batters.

If he has a current bowler whose qualities he would like to match, it is Mitchell Starc, the Australian left-armer. “He is another left-armer, of similar height. He does what I want to do as well, swings the ball back in, so he is the one I’d see as a role model,” he said.

Hull is modest about Thomas’s admiration for his tactical awareness.

“I like to use my height to generate extra bounce, I’ve got my variations and obviously different batters have strengths and weaknesses which you analyse before the game,” he said. 

“But basically you just run in, hit the pitch as hard as possible and try to get things to happen.”

Leicestershire, still in contention for promotion from Division Two of the LV= Insurance County Championship as well as silverware in the 50-over competition, are bracing for an exciting end to their 2023 summer.

On a personal level, Hull just hopes to continue to hold down a first-team place into the last six weeks of the county season and keep contributing.

“What I have done so far is beyond what I thought I would do at the start of the year, so I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and see what happens.”

To watch Hull in action for the Foxes during next Tuesday's Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-final, buy tickets HERE.