Paul Ian Walter (born 28 May 1994) is an English cricketer who plays for

Essex County Cricket Club Essex 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 Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 w ...

. He is a left-handed

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

who bowls left-arm

medium-fast Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

. 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 for Essex, on 24 June 2016, against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. 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 for Essex in the

2017 Royal London One-Day Cup The 2017 Royal London One-Day Cup tournament was a limited overs cricket competition that forms part of the 2017 domestic cricket season in England and Wales. Matches were contested over 50 overs per side and had List A cricket status. All eigh ...

on 10 May 2017. Originally taking his place in the Essex team mostly as bowler, and batting at number 10 on his first-class debut, Walter later was picked as a number three batsman and even as an opener in limited-overs cricket. In the 2021 season he found a regular place in the middle-order for Essex in the County Championship, being notable for his consistency. He maintains an average of around 40. On the other hand his bowling was rarely used. He started the 2022 season in the second XI with new signing Matt Critchley taking his spot in the middle order. Returning to the first team after injury to Dan Lawrence, he made 93 against Northants to help save the match and secure his place in the side. In May 2022, 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 ...

, Walter scored his maiden century in first-class cricket, with 141 against

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 ...

. Walter signed with the

Brisbane Heat The Brisbane Heat are an Australian professional franchise men's and women's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). The Heat are the successors of the Queensland Bulls who playe ...

for BBL13, where he quickly became a cult hero, making key contributions with bat and ball in a number of games, notably winning the Player of the Match Award in wins against 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 ...

and

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 ...

. Walter played in the final against the Sixers, as the Heat took out the title for the first time since BBL02, becoming only the third team to win the title on multiple occasions, after the Sixers and

Perth Scorchers The Perth Scorchers are an Australian men's professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League. The Scorchers wear an orange uniform and are based in Perth in the Australian state of Western Australia. Their home gr ...

. Walter took 17 wickets in his 11 matches, with only his teammates

Xavier Bartlett Xavier Colin Bartlett (born 17 December 1998) is an Australian international cricketer who represents the Australia national cricket team in ODI and T20I cricket. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Bartlett plays for Queensland and Brisbane Heat ...

(20) and Spencer Johnson (19) having taken more wickets in the tournament. Walter's return to Brisbane for BBL14 was less successful, having been dropped after making five appearances, taking just two wickets and going at an economy rate of greater than 10 runs per over.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walter, Paul 1994 births Cricketers from Essex English cricketers Brisbane Heat cricketers Essex cricketers Living people Manchester Originals cricketers Peshawar Zalmi cricketers North v South cricketers Sportspeople from Basildon