Jigar Naik

Squad Number - 22

Player Sponsor - Jalpur Millers

Born - Leicester, August 10, 1984

Joined - Leicestershire 2006

Role - Right-Hand Batsman, Off-Break Bowler

Family -

Teams Represented - Leicestershire

Honours - Topping the national first-class bowling averages in 2010. FL t20 title with Leicestershire

Highlight of Career - Making my first-class debut and scoring a first-class hundred

Players Admired - Claude Henderson, Erapalli Prasanna, Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Flintoff

Relaxations - Music, Golf, Reading, Gym

Jigar Naik continued to impress in 2011. Naik finished as Leicestershire’s leading first-class wicket-taker, took 3-3 in an FL t20 game at Yorkshire and played in the FLt20 winning team against Somerset.

The off-spinner was rewarded for his efforts by being named as one of the ECB’s Potential England Performance Programme players. Naik’s winter will therefore involve a training camp in Loughborough followed by several weeks in Sri Lanka, with the tour including a match-play element.

Naik also scored 545 first-class runs in 2011 and also fielded well to underline his all-round talents. His excellence built on a terrific 2010 campaign, where he finished top of the national bowling averages after claiming 35 first-class wickets at an average of 17.59.

The spinner’s finest hour came at the Oval, where he took a career-best 7-96 to bowl the hosts out in their second innings. The haul helped him to share the John Josephs Award for best performance in the first XI along with James Taylor.

Naik and Henderson regularly strangled the life out of the opposition and took 87 Championship wickets between them. The good work built on the foundations laid in 2009, where Naik was named the Club’s most improved uncapped player.

In that season, Naik also bowled beautifully in all formats and memorably made his maiden first-class century against Derbyshire as part of a game-saving stand with Taylor. The duo set an all-time Club record for the eighth wicket on that occasion.

It was a remarkable effort, particularly given the fact that he had not long returned from a broken arm sustained after being selected for his first Championship appearance of the season against Surrey.

Naik became the first Leicester-born Asian to represent the county in 2006 and has gone from strength to strength since then. Supporters can look forward to seeing him continue to develop in 2012.

Naik's career record at Leics:

JKH Naik 2011 (94.14 kB)