Alexander Zak Lees (born 14 April 1993), popularly known as Alex Lees, is an English professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

, captaining the

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

and T20 teams. He previously played for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. Lees made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

debut in 2022, and plays as a left-handed

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

Early life

Alex Lees was born in

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woo ...

, where he attended Holy Trinity Senior School. His introduction to cricket was with Bradshaw Cricket Club in the

Halifax Cricket League The Halifax Cricket League is the premier cricket competition in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. In the league, there are also clubs from the nearby Calder Valley, city of Bradford, town of Huddersfield and the Spen Valley. League ...

, quickly moving from the junior ranks into senior cricket before he was a teenager. Lees left Bradshaw and move to Illingworth at the age of 13. He was attached to

from 2006, starting at under 11 level. He played for and captained the Yorkshire Academy in the

Yorkshire ECB County Premier League The Yorkshire ECB County Premier League was the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Yorkshire, England, and between 1999 and 2015 was a designated ECB Premier League. The league was formed in 1999 and replaced the Yorkshi ...

, and the Yorkshire Second XI in the

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually eve ...

, before progressing to the first team. He made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

against

India A The India A cricket team is a national cricket team representing second-tier cricket of India national cricket team. The matches played by India A receive first-class and List A classification. It is a developmental team, domestic players who ar ...

in June 2010, scoring 38 runs. In April 2013, Lees made his maiden first-class century in his third first-class match, when scoring 121 against Leeds/Bradford MCC Universities at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

Cricket career

He was part of the England player development XI in both 2010 and 2011. In September 2011, Yorkshire County Cricket Club announced that Lees had been awarded a junior-pro contract. He was given plaudits from the former England opener

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

, who stated that "I think he's very good ... I like the whole package with him". Lees played his first match against an England first-class county side in April 2013, when he appeared for Yorkshire against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, and scored a century in his third County Championship match with 100 against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. In July, he played only the 50th innings of over 250 runs for Yorkshire, scoring 275 not out in the first innings of the match against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

Queen's Park, Chesterfield Queen's Park is a county cricket ground located in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. It has a small pavilion and is surrounded by ma ...

. His innings was the third-highest score at the ground and also made him the youngest Yorkshire player to score a double hundred. In August 2013, Lees was selected to play for England Lions in a two-day friendly match against the Australians at Northampton, opening the batting and scoring 33 runs. He then travelled to Australia with the England Performance Squad, though he did not pass fifty. He also played for the Lions against Sri Lanka A Emerging Players in February 2014, scoring a century in the first match. During the 2014 and 2015 seasons Lees formed a strong opening partnership with Adam Lyth, helping Yorkshire win the County Championship in both years. In 2016 he became Yorkshire's captain in both one-day formats - at 22, the youngest to hold the office, remarkably, since Lord Hawke. In September 2014, Lees was named the

Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year The Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been presented since the 1950 season and t ...

. On 13 August 2018, Lees signed for

on loan until the end of the 2018 season before signing a three-year contract at the end of the season. In February 2022, Lees was named in England's

squad for their series against the West Indies. He made his Test debut on 8 March 2022, for England against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. In April 2022, in the opening round of matches in the

2022 County Championship The 2022 County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 122nd cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. The season began on 7 April and ended on 29 September 2022. Warwic ...

, Lees carried his bat against

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

, scoring an unbeaten 182 runs. In July 2023 he made his best score for

Durham County Cricket Club Durham County Cricket Club (rebranded as Durham Cricket in February 2019) is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic c ...

to date with scoring 195 against Gloucestershire. Lees was named Durham club captain in December 2024 after signing a new three-year contract.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lees, Alex 1993 births Living people English cricketers England Test cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Durham cricketers Cricketers from Halifax, West Yorkshire