Ashton Agar

Ashton Charles Agar(born 14 October 1993) is an Australiancricketerwho plays all forms of the game at international level. Agar plays domestically forWestern Australiaand thePerth Scorchers. A left-handed spin bowler, he played twoTestmatches for theAustralian national sideduring the2013 Ashes seriesand 5Test matchesin his career. Agar was also a member of the Australian team that won the2021 T20 World CupinDubaiandOman.
Agar was born inMelbourne,to Sonia Hewawissa, aSri Lankanmother and John Agar, an Australian father,and has two younger brothers, Will andWes.He attended Melbourne'sDe La Salle College, graduating in 2011.
He representedVictoriaat both under-17 and under-19 level.After good form at the 2010–11 National Under-17 Championships, where he took 16 wickets at an average of 11.75 bowlingleft-arm orthodox spin,he was selected to play for theAustralian under-19sfor a series against theWest Indies under-19sin theUnited Arab Emirates. Making his debut at the age of 17, Agar went on to play one under-19Testand ten under-19One Day International(ODI) matches for Australia.At the2012 Under-19 World Cup, he was named in the squad as Australia's second spinner behindAshton Turner,but did not play a match at the tournament.
Having failed to gain selection at senior level for Victoria, Agar moved to Western Australia for the 2012–13 season, where he was awarded a contract with theWestern Australian Cricket Association(WACA).He made hisfirst-classdebut for Western Australia in aSheffield Shieldmatch againstNew South Walesin January 2013, replacing the injuredMichael Beeras the side's spinner.In his second Shield match, early the following month, he scored 53 runs in Western Australia's second innings, putting on a state Sheffield Shield recordpartnershipof 94 runs for the tenth wicket withMichael Hogan(43*).Agar made hisList Adebut for Western Australia in thelimited-oversRyobi One-Day Cupin late January,and took five wickets from his two matches,with his best figures 3/51 againstQueensland.
Agar made hisSheffield Shielddebut in January 2013. The following month, he was called up for Australia's2012–13 tour of India, where he played a single tour match. Agar toured England and Ireland withAustralia Ain mid-2013, performing well in the English conditions. Although originally not selected in the touring squad, he made his Test debut for Australia in the first Test of the 2013 Ashes series. Coming in with the score on 117/9, Agar scored 98 runs batting eleventh in Australia's first innings, Agar broke several Test records on debut, including the highest score by a number-11 batsman and the highestpartnershipfor the tenth wicket (withPhillip Hughes– since broken). However, after poor bowling, he was dropped from the team after the second Test of the series.
In February 2013, Agar was a late inclusion in the Australian squad for the2012–13 tour of India,and played a single match on tour, taking 3/107 againstIndia A.He finished the Sheffield Shield season with 19 wickets from five matches,including afive-wicket haul, 5/65, taken againstSouth Australiain early March.In the same match, Agar was again involved in a substantial last-wicket partnership with Michael Hogan, with the pair adding 68 to enable Western Australia to win by one wicket.In his previous match, againstTasmania, he had scored 71not outin Western Australia's fourth innings of 8/351, helping the team win by two wickets,and he finished the season with 229 runs at an average of 32.71, finishing third in the team's batting averages.
Agar made hisTwenty20debut for thePerth Scorchersin the2013 Champions League Twenty20in India.He was used primarily as anopening batsmanat the tournament, bowling only 4.2 overs across three matches (from which he conceded 51 runs without taking a wicket).Against theMumbai Indians, he scored 35 from 40 balls, which was his highest score in twenty20s As of March 2015.Agar played only a single match during the2013–14 Big Bash League season, butthe following seasonfeatured in eight of the Scorchers' ten matches. He took eight wickets at an average of 24.25, ranked thirteenth in the competition and fourth for the Scorchers, behindJason Behrendorff,Yasir Arafat, andAndrew Tye. Only two spinners –Cameron Boyce(10) andAdam Zampa(9) – took more wickets at the tournament.When the2014–15 Sheffield Shield seasonresumed after the conclusion of the Big Bash League, Agar was man of the match against South Australia, taking an inauguralten-wicket haul(5/133 and 5/81) and also scoring 64 in Western Australia's first innings.In the next match, against New South Wales, he took 4/22 in the second innings, helping to bowl New South Wales out for 97.
AtWACA district level, Agar plays for University.He previously played for theRichmond Cricket ClubinVictorian Premier Cricket.
Agar was selected to tour England, Scotland, and Ireland withAustralia Ain June 2013.Along withFawad Ahmed, he was generally considered to be competing for a final position in Australia's squad for the2013 Ashes seriesin England.A spot in the squad for a second spinner, behindNathan Lyon, had been kept open to be given to one of the two spinners, based on form in the lead-up to the tour.Following his good form for Australia A, Agar was named to make hisTestdebut in thefirst Testof the series (played atTrent Bridge,Nottingham), replacing Lyon in the side from the previous tour.Aged 19 years and 269 days, he became the twelfth-youngest Australian Test player,as well as the youngest Australian sinceArchie Jackson(during the1928–29 series) to make his Test debut in the Ashes.On debut, he scored 98 runs from 101 balls batting eleventh in Australia's first innings, breaking several Test records, including first player to ever score a half-century as a number eleven batsman on debut, highest score by a number eleven batsman, and, withPhillip Hughes, highestpartnership(163 runs) for the tenth wicket.
Agar played in the first two Tests of the series, and despite his debut batting performance, had very limited success with the ball, taking 0/24, 2/82, 0/44 and 0/98 for a bowling average of 124. He was subsequently dropped from the team for the third and fourth Tests, and returned home due to illness ahead of the final Test. Lyon replaced him in the side.DuringIndia's 2014–15 tour of Australia, he was added to Australia's squad for the Fourth Test, adead rubberon a spin-friendly pitch at theSydney Cricket Ground, but he did not play in the match, with Lyon preferred as Australia's sole spinner.
In 2015, Agar was not granted a spot for The Ashes squad, instead becoming a fixture in the List A squad. He would make his limited-overs debut following the Ashes series.
He made hisOne Day Internationaldebutagainst Englandon 8 September 2015.He made hisTwenty20 Internationaldebut for Australiaagainst South Africaon 6 March 2016.
In 2017, Agar was recalled to the Australian test side for their tour of Bangladesh, and in the first test match, took 5 wickets in total, as well as scoring an impressive 41 not out in Australia's first innings. Despite his efforts, Australia lost to Bangladesh for the first time in Test cricket.
In April 2018, he was awarded a national contract byCricket Australiafor the 2018–19 season.
On 21 February 2020, in the first T20I matchagainst South Africa, Agar became the second bowler for Australia, and 13th overall, to take ahat-trick in a T20I match.He finished the match with figures of 5/24 from his four overs, his firstfive-wicket haul in a T20I match.
In April 2020,Cricket Australiaawarded Agar with a central contract ahead of the 2020–21 season.On 16 July 2020, Agar was named in a 26-man preliminary squad of players to begin training ahead of a possibletour to Englandfollowing theCOVID-19 pandemic.On 14 August 2020,Cricket Australiaconfirmed that the fixtures would be taking place, with Agar included in the touring party.
On 3 March 2021, during the seriesagainst New Zealand, Agar took thebest figures for a bowler for Australia, and thefifth-best figures overallin T20Is, with 6/30 from his four overs.In August 2021, Agar was named in Australia's squad for the2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
In March 2022, Agar was added to the Australian test, ODI, and T20 squad ahead of itstour of Pakistan. However, Agar was withdrawn from the T20 squad after testing positive forcoronavirus.
To provide spin depth to the Australian test squad during itsseries against South Africa, Agar was added for the fifth and final test match in Sydney. He was named in the Australian test XI for the first time in five years, as an all-rounder option followingCameron Green's dislocated finger injury.
In May 2024, he was named in Australia’s squad for the2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cuptournament.