Josh Oliver Baker (16 May 2003 – 2 May 2024) was an English cricketer. Born in Redditch, Worcestershire, he was a student at

Malvern College Malvern College is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging coeducational boarding school, boarding and day school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school ...

from 2016 to 2021. He made his first-class debut on 11 July 2021, for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

in the

2021 County Championship The 2021 County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 121st cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. For the first phase of the tournament, the teams were split into ...

, after signing a rookie contract with the club the previous day. He made his

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 ...

debut on 25 July 2021, for Worcestershire in the

2021 Royal London One-Day Cup The 2021 Royal London One-Day Cup tournament was a limited overs cricket competition that formed part of the 2021 English cricket season in England and Wales. Matches were contested over 50 overs per side, having List A cricket status, with a ...

. In December 2021, he was named as one of two reserve players in England's team for the

2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies in January and February 2022 with sixteen teams taking part. It was the fourteenth edition of the Under-19 Men's Cricke ...

in the West Indies. He 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 on 25 May 2022, for the Worcestershire Rapids in the

2022 T20 Blast The 2022 Vitality Blast was the twentieth edition of the T20 Blast (currently known as the Vitality Blast), a professional Twenty20 cricket league played in England and Wales. The tournament was held from 25 May to 16 July 2022. The tournament ...

. In August 2022, Baker sustained a lower back injury that caused him to miss the rest of the season. On 21 March 2023, he signed three-year deal at

Worcestershire County Cricket Club Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebranded ...

. Baker died on 2 May 2024, at the age of 20, after collapsing due to an undiagnosed heart defect. On 9 May 2024, Worcestershire announced that all players would wear the 33 jerseys for the rest of the domestic season as a tribute to him. Worcestershire retired the number 33 shirt in Baker's memory in September 2024.

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* 2003 births 2024 deaths Worcestershire cricketers Cricketers from Redditch People educated at Malvern College 21st-century English sportsmen {{England-cricket-bio-2000s-stub