Sam Billings
Samuel William Billings is an English professional cricketer. Billings is a right-handed batsman who fields as a wicket-keeper. He was born at Pembury in Kent and has played for Kent County Cricket Club teams since he was eight years old, making his senior debut for the First XI in 2011. In October 2017 he was appointed as the vice-captain of the team before being appointed as captain in January 2018, replacing Sam Northeast. He served as the club's captain until the end of the 2023 season when he resigned, although he retained the captaincy of the club's Twenty20 cricket team.
Billings is regarded as a versatile cricketer who studies the game intensely and has an imaginative range of scoring shots. He has appeared mainly in limited overs formats for the England cricket team and made his Test cricket debut in January 2022. He has played Twenty20 franchise cricket in the Pakistan Super League, Indian Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League and in the Big Bash League in Australia and captained Oval Invincibles in all four seasons of The Hundred.
Early and personal life
Billings was born at Pembury in Kent and grew up on his family's farm in the north of the county. He developed as a good all-round sportsman, playing tennis for Kent and being offered a trial for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club after scoring a hat-trick against the team's academy team whilst playing for Corinthian under-14s. He also played racquets, squash, and rugby. His grandfather, Ron Billings, was a racquets champion and his cousin, Tom Billings, has been world champion of the sport. Billings attributes racquets with helping to develop his batting skills, in particular his hand-eye coordination.Billings attended New Beacon School in Sevenoaks, and then Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, appearing regularly for their cricket XI throughout his school career. He studied for a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at Loughborough University. Billings has said that he was "nowhere near good enough" to become a professional cricketer before his time at university and credits it with encouraging him to work hard to develop his talent.
Early career
Billings made his first-class debut for Loughborough MCCU against Northamptonshire in 2011. He made a further first-class appearance for the team in 2011, against Leicestershire. In his four first-class matches for Loughborough MCCU, he scored 321 runs at an average of 45.85, with a highest score of 131. This score came in his debut match against Northamptonshire.Kent career
Whilst at university Billings was also a member of the Kent squad, and he made his debut for the county in May 2011 in a first-class match against his university team, Loughborough MCCU. During the 2011 season he also made his List A debut for Kent against the Netherlands in the 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40, standing in for regular wicket-keeper Geraint Jones. Billings made three further List A appearances in the 2011 season, as well as playing in four matches in the 2011 Friends Provident t20. After leading the county in one day runs scored in 2012, Billings replaced former England wicket-keeper Jones in Kent's 2013 Friends Life t20 campaign. At the end of the season he kept wicket in the County Championship, breaking Jones' string of 115 consecutive Championship appearances for Kent before playing Sydney Grade Cricket for Penrith District Cricket Club during the 2013–14 English winter.Billings became the first choice wicket-keeper for Kent in the 2014 season. He played in the champion county match in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the 2015 season before scoring 693 runs at an average of 29.80 in the 2015 County Championship season and making his England One Day and T20 debuts. He was awarded his Kent county cap in August 2015 during the annual Canterbury Cricket Week and signed a contract extension with Kent, in January 2016.
After spending the winter playing one-day international cricket with England and featuring in both the Pakistan Super League and Indian Premier League T20 competitions, Billings returned to Kent at the end of May having missed six County Championship matches as well as the start of both one-day competitions. During the 2016 season he became only the second Kent wicket-keeper to take seven catches in an innings and the tenth to claim nine dismissals in a first-class match, both one short of equalling the record for the county, and made his highest score in first-class cricket.
Billings spent the following winter playing for England in Bangladesh, Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League and for England again in India and the West Indies as well as once again playing in the PSL and IPL. England duty again kept him away from Kent for parts of the 2017 season and he played in only six of the county's County Championship matches during the season, although he was ever present during the T20 Blast. He averaged 43.66 in the Championship games he played and captained the team in a tour match against the West Indies in August. At the end of the season he signed a new contract with Kent and was appointed officially as the team's vice-captain.
Following Sam Northeast's removal as Kent captain in early 2018 Billings was appointed to the post as his replacement, despite some disquiet about his participation in the 2018 Indian Premier League. This meant that he missed the first part of the County Championship and One Day Cup seasons. The team was captained by Joe Denly in Billings' absence. Later in the season Billings once again signed a contract extension.
Billings captained Kent Spitfires to the 2021 T20 Blast title, beating Somerset in the final by 25 runs to win the tournament and their second domestic T20 title.
International career
Billings was first called into the England Performance Programme in 2014 and took part in a training camp in Sri Lanka during the English winter. He had played for an ECB under-16 team in 2006 and for England age group teams at under-17 and under-18 level before touring Bangladesh with the England under-19 team in 2009.He was named in the squad for the England Lions cricket team in the 2014/15 off-season in South Africa, making his debut and scoring 53 against a Gauteng Invitation XI in January 2015 and going on to play for the Lions in four of the five unofficial one-day international matches on the tour. In late 2014 he had been named in the provisional squad for the England cricket team before the 2015 Cricket World Cup, replacing the injured Craig Kieswetter, but did not feature in the final squad for the tournament.
International debut
Billings made his senior England international debut in an ODI against the touring New Zealand team in June 2015, playing as a batsman and scoring three runs. After playing in all five ODIs during the series, he made his Twenty20 International debut on 23 June 2015, scoring 21 runs. He was an unused member of the ODI squad against Australia later the same summer before playing in the only T20I against the Australians at the end of August.After the New Zealand series Billing was a regular in England ODI and T20I squads but played infrequently for two years, never appearing in two consecutive England ODI teams until March 2017. He made his England debut as a wicketkeeper in the first T20I against Pakistan in Dubai in November 2015. He made his maiden international half-century in the match, reaching his fifty in 24 balls, before being run out for 53 off the last ball of the England innings. He took two catches and completed a stumping during the Pakistan innings as England won by 14 runs. He was adjudged man of the match for his performance during the match.
He played for the Lions against Pakistan A in Dubai in January 2016, against South Africa in 2016 and was selected for the England squad for the 2016 World Twenty20 competition. He did not make an appearance for England during the competition, other than as a substitute fielder. He was named in a 30-man England Performance Squad for the 2016 domestic season and played for the full England T20 team against Sri Lanka in July 2016 and for the Lions team against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka A, scoring his highest List A cricket score of 175 against Pakistan at Canterbury, before touring Bangladesh with the England One Day International team in October, scoring his maiden ODI half-century with a score of 62 in the final match of the series batting as a replacement opening batsman, to help England to a 2–1 series win.
In early 2017 Billings was part of the England ODI and T20 squad which toured India. He played in the opening List A match of the tour against India A again as a specialist batsman, scoring 93 runs, and in an ODI and T20 match on the tour before playing back to back ODI matches for the first time since his debut series against the West Indies. He was an unused member of the England squad for the 2017 Champions Trophy but played against Ireland, South Africa and West Indies during the summer of 2017. In early 2018 he joined the England squad in Australia for the ODI element of their tour, although he did not appear in any of the matches, before playing in the 2017–18 Trans-Tasman Tri-Series T20 matches against Australia and New Zealand in February. He was, again, an unused member of the England squad for the ODI series against New Zealand which followed.
In October 2019, Billings was named as the vice-captain and first-choice wicket-keeper in England's T20I squad for their tour of New Zealand. He played in all five T20I matches on the tour, although he only scored 34 runs in his five innings and was not selected for the limited-overs team in South Africa early 2020. In May 2020, he was named in a group of 55 players to begin behind closed doors training ahead of international fixtures starting in England following the COVID-19 pandemic. He was not selected in the Test team to face the West Indies but in July was named in the squad for the ODI series against Ireland After playing in all three matches against Ireland without being dismissed and making scores of 67 and 46, he played in the three T20I matches against the touring Pakistanis. Following the return of more established players for matches at the end of the summer against Australia, Billings played in only the last T20I of the three-match series, but was selected for the opening ODI. He went on to make his first senior international century in the match, scoring 118 runs, before playing in both of the other matches in the series. Wisden named him in their ODI team of 2020, the only member of the England team to be selected.