Jonathan Wayne Wells (born 13 August 1988) is an Australian

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 ...

player, who plays for

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in first-class and

one-day cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

, and the

Melbourne Renegades Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competit ...

in the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

(BBL). He originates from

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, and represented

in both first-class and one-day cricket prior. Wells spent several seasons on the cusp of selection for Tasmania before making his first-class debut in 2008. He spent the next seven years fighting to keep a spot in the state team while improving his form in both one-day and Twenty20 cricket, playing for the

Hobart Hurricanes Hobart Hurricanes are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket team based in Hobart, Tasmania. They compete in Australia's domestic Big Bash League. The Hurricanes play the majority of their home matches at Ninja Stadium ...

in the BBL. In 2015 he was cut from Tasmania's squad for the second time and moved to Western Australia to seek more opportunities, earning a contract with his new state in 2016. Wells played for the

in the BBL for the first six seasons of the tournament before switching teams to the Adelaide Strikers. In his first season with the Strikers he won the tournament after coming up against his former side in the final.

Early life

Wells was born in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

. He played both junior cricket and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

and was a member of the

Tassie Mariners The Tassie Mariners is an under-18 Australian rules football club representing the state of Tasmania. They currently play in the AFL Under 18 Championships and also played in the Victorian statewide under-18s competition (then known as the TAC ...

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

side in 2005. He was the 2004–05 Tasmanian under-17 "Player of the Championships", and was also the 2005 National under-17 "Player of the Championships". He gained selection in the Australian squad of 30 for the 2006 Under-19 World Cup and the Tasmanian second XI in 2005–06. He was called up to the Tigers' senior squad despite his youth in 2006 due to his impressive form in representative sides over the previous seasons. He went into his second season on a rookie contract, the 2007–08 season, looking to break into Tasmania's batting lineup, but he didn't make his debut for the state until his third season.

First-class career

Tasmania (2008–2015)

Wells received his first call up to the Tigers senior side in December 2008, based upon his solid performances in the Tasmanian Grade Cricket competition, and the indifferent form of the Tigers top order in the start of the 2008-09 season. He made his

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

debut at home against the New South Wales Blues, and despite nervously running himself out for 4 in his first innings, he made a solid contribution of 46 in the second innings to give an indication of his potential at first-class level. He took advantage of Tasmania's unsettled top order and played six matches during the season. The highlights of his season were an 85 he scored against New South Wales and a 98 against

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, falling just short of scoring a maiden first-class

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

. Wells was upgraded to a full contract with Tasmania after his debut season, but for the rest of his time with the team he failed to secure a permanent place in the squad. Often he was forced to play for Tasmania's second XI and in grade cricket. After a few years in the system Wells started to have more success in limited overs cricket. Wells made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut in the 2010–11 Big Bash for Tasmania, filling in for

Tim Paine Timothy David Paine (born 8 December 1984) is an Australian former cricketer and a former captain of the Australia national cricket team in Test cricket. A right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper, he played for the Tasmanian Tigers in Austra ...

, and scored 51 not out in his first innings as Tasmania demolished Victoria. He also scored his maiden List A century against

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in the 2011–12 Ryobi Cup with 121 not out, helping to secure Tasmania's spot in the tournament's final. Despite his improving form he was dropped from Tasmania's contract list in 2012. After being cut from Tasmania's list Wells started to make his way back up through the ranks in Twenty20 cricket, playing for the

in the recently created

. He established himself as a regular member of the Hurricanes' team during BBL03, and his form in grade cricket was also exceptional. He won the Emerson Rodwell Medal, Tasmania's grade cricket medal for the best player of the season, after the 2013–14 season. He amassed 752 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 72.20 and also bowled well, taking eight wickets. It was the first time he had won the medal after finishing in second place twice before. Wells had the best season of his career yet in the 2014–15 summer. He made his way back into Tasmania's team and scored a century in a one-day match against Victoria. In BBL04 he scored half-centuries against both the

Melbourne Stars Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melbou ...

and the

Adelaide Strikers The Adelaide Strikers are an Australian professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia that compete in the Big Bash League (BBL).Cricket Australia (n.d), Teams and Players, Cricket Australia, accessed 1 Decemb ...

with 68 and 58 respectively. He was among Tasmania's best batsmen for the season. He had the team's third best batting average in the Sheffield Shield and was their third-highest run scorer in one day matches. Regardless of his improvement, after playing 35 first-class matches and 26 one-day matches for Tasmania, he was again cut from their contract list. He moved to

, seeking more opportunities to play first-class and one-day cricket, but he was kept on by the Hurricanes for Twenty20 matches.

Western Australia (2015–present)

Despite not being contracted to

in the 2015–16 season, he was named in the squad for the Matador Cup, Australia's one-day tournament, and played two Sheffield Shield matches for the state. He was one of eight players added to Western Australia's contract list for the 2016–17 season after impressing selectors enough in his two Shield matches. He did not play in the first match of the

2016–17 Sheffield Shield season The 2016–17 Sheffield Shield season was the 115th season of the Sheffield Shield, the Australia, Australian domestic first-class cricket, first-class cricket competition. It started on 25 October 2016 and finished on 30 March 2017. There was a ...

, but after scoring 153 and 149 not out for Western Australia Under-23s against Victoria Under-23s he was selected for the second Shield match to replace

Shaun Marsh Shaun Edward Marsh (born 9 July 1983) is an Australian cricketer who previously played for the Western Australia cricket team in Australian domestic cricket and has represented Australian national cricket team, Australia in all three formats. Ni ...

, who was on

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) ...

duty. In Western Australia's third match he scored 120, his first first-class century, in the second innings, and two matches later he scored 113 not out to take Western Australia to their first victory of the season by eight wickets. He also fired in BBL06, with 137 runs for the Hurricanes at a strike-rate of 130.47, his best performance coming against the Adelaide Strikers, scoring a quickfire 55 off 37 balls. Wells signed with the

to play for them in BBL07, his first team change after playing 45 games in six seasons for the Hurricanes. His highlight of the tournament came in a match against the

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers is an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the Spee ...

when he hit a

six 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

a distance of 104 metres, landing the ball on the roof of the O'Reilly stand at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...

. He finished the tournament by winning the final with the Strikers against his former side the Hurricanes and becoming a BBL champion. Wells improved on his form for the Strikers in BBL, 08, scoring 359 runs at an average of 44.88, leading the run scoring for the Strikers in what was an unsuccessful defence of their title from the previous season. In BBL 09, Wells was linked to a possible selection in Australia's T20I squad after improving yet again, scoring 478 runs at an average of 68.29. He sat fourth on the run scorers table at the conclusion of the season and led the competition for batting average.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Jonathan 1988 births Living people Australian cricketers Tasmania cricketers Western Australia cricketers Adelaide Strikers cricketers Cricketers from Hobart Hobart Hurricanes cricketers 21st-century Australian sportsmen