Peter Stephen Patrick Handscomb is an Australian cricketer who is the current captain for Victoria and Middlesex. He is contracted domestically to Victoria, the Melbourne Stars and Middlesex. He is also in the current squad for Tests, Twenty20 Internationals and One Day Internationals for Australia. He is a middle order batsman and occasional wicket-keeper. He initially had the role of wicket keeper for the national team when former keeper Matthew Wade was unavailable. He most recently kept during the First T20I against India in February 2019, replacing vice-captain Alex Carey in the lineup.
Early life and junior career
He had also been a talented junior tennis player, but eventually chose to pursue cricket. He played for Victoria at both under-17 and under-19 level, and went on to play for the Australian under-19 cricket team during the Sri Lankan under-19 team's tour of Australia in October 2009.
Domestic career
Having spent the 2011 season playing English club cricket for Tring Park, as well as several matches for Leicestershire in the Second XI Championship. Handscomb debuted for Victoria during the 2011–12 Australian season, playing as a top-order batsman. He scored 42 and 71 runs, respectively, in his first List A and first-class innings, both in matches against Queensland at the Gabba. Handscomb's first century in Sheffield Shield matches came against South Australia in February 2012, an innings of 113 runs at the Adelaide Oval. Towards the end of the season, he was also used as Victoria's wicket-keeper, with both Matthew Wade and Ryan Carters unavailable. Handscomb was awarded Cricket Victoria contracts for both Victoria and the Melbourne Stars for the 2012–13 season. In Victorian Premier Cricket, he plays for the St Kilda Cricket Club, and led the club's batting averages during the 2011–12 season. Handscomb also holds British citizenship, with both of his parents English immigrants to Australia. Handscomb's break-through first class season occurred for Victoria in 2014–15, when he scored three centuries and averaged 53.91. He also made his mark in the Big Bash League, playing for the Melbourne Stars, where he scored an unbeaten century against the Perth Scorchers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. His century was the first time he had passed a score of 25 in the BBL, and he was the only batsman to pass 20 in his side's three-wicket win. He played county cricket for Gloucestershire during 2015, and began touring with Australia A, becoming captain of the team in early 2016.
International career
In November 2016, immediately after his maiden first-class double century against New South Wales and amidst the backdrop of Australia's disastrous home series loss against South Africa and the retirement of chairman of selectors Rod Marsh, Handscomb was one of several players brought into Australia's Test team ahead of the dead rubber third Test against South Africa. He made his Test debut on 24 November 2016, and was presented his baggy green cap by Chris Rogers. Batting at number five, Handscomb made an impressive start to his Test career, scoring 399 runs at an average of 99.75 across the remaining four home Tests of the summer: one against South Africa and three against Pakistan. He scored his maiden Test hundred in the first Test against Pakistan at the Gabba, in a 172-run partnership with skipper Steve Smith, and followed it with 110 in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Peter Handscomb became the first batsman in history to score his maiden test century in a Day Night test match. With half-centuries in the other two matches, Handscomb became the second Australian Test cricketer to score a half century in each of his first four Tests, and was not dismissed for less than fifty in any innings. He made his One Day Internationals debut in Perth on 19 January 2017 against Pakistan, and was presented his ODI cap by Adam Gilchrist. In his debut innings, Handscomb was caught behind for 0, but it was shown that the bowler, Junaid Khan had bowled a no-ball. He went on to score 82 in Australia's successful chase of 264 against Pakistan, the third highest debut score by an Australian in an ODI. On 30 January 2017, Handscomb deputised for Matthew Wade as wicketkeeper against New Zealand. In April 2018, he was awarded a national contract by Cricket Australia for the 2018–19 season. In February 2019, he was named in Australia's Twenty20 International squad for their series against India. He made his T20I debut for Australia against India on 24 February 2019. In March 2019, he scored his first century in an ODI, with 117 against India at Mohali. In July 2019, Handscomb was added to Australia's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. He replaced Shaun Marsh, who was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a fractured forearm. As Handscomb missed out on the selection for The Ashes squad, meanwhile he got a spot in Durham squad and replaced Cameron Bancroft to play in 2019 Vitality Blast.
Playing style
Handscomb is a very capable and versatile fielder, having fielded around the slip cordon, short leg, point and also at wicketkeeper. As a batsman, Handscomb is known to play the majority of his shots off the front foot, and also plays very deep in his crease, dangerously close to the stumps. While the intention of this technique is to get more time to react to the ball, in reality it makes him vulnerable against pace bowlers with sideways movements. This issue is further exacerbated by his tendency to change his batting guard during his innings. This issue was exposed during his recall to the test team in 2018 against India, where Australian legend Shane Warne likened him to a ‘lamb to the slaughter’ and in the 3rd test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, his home test, he was dropped from the test team.
