Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones is an English cricketer. A medium-fast, right-arm bowler and a lower order right-handed batsman, Roland-Jones represents Middlesex in county cricket, and has represented England at Test and ODI level.
Early life and career
Toby Roland-Jones represented the Middlesex colts in age group cricket throughout his childhood, initially as a right-handed batsman, before transforming into a promising right-arm medium-fast bowler. He was educated at Hampton School and The University of Leeds where he represented the Bradford/Leeds Universities Cricketing Centre of Excellence. After also creating an impression for Sunbury Cricket Club in the Surrey Premier League, he was invited to play for the Middlesex and Surrey 2nd XIs. He joined Middlesex initially on a summer contract in 2010.
County career
Following a successful start to his county career, he signed a three-year contract in August 2010. He took 38 wickets in his first eight first-class matches at an average of 19.60 with a best bowling analysis of 5/41. On 23 September 2016, Roland-Jones took a hat-trick against Yorkshire to secure the County Championship for Middlesex for the first time in 23 years. He was named one of the Wisden 2017's Cricketers of the year. In September 2017, Roland-Jones suffered a lower-back stress fracture whilst playing for Middlesex and was consequently unavailable for selection for the England winter tours to Australia and New Zealand. On his return to county cricket in April 2018, a recurrence of the injury was predicted to rule him out of the 2018 season. On 26 July 2019, in the 2019 t20 Blast match against Glamorgan, Roland-Jones took a hat-trick, finishing with career-best figures of 5 for 21.
International career
In July 2016 he was named in England's squad for their Test series against Pakistan. However, he was dropped from the squad after Ben Stokes and James Anderson were recalled to the England squad for the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford. He made his One Day International debut for England against South Africa on 29 May 2017. He made his Test debut for England against South Africa on 27 July 2017 and took five wickets in his first England test match, ripping through the South African top four and completing his maiden five-for by removing Temba Bavuma. He is the first Englishman to take a five-for on debut since Adil Rashid in 2015. Roland-Jones also showed that he is a capable lower order batsmen by adding 25 in the first innings and 23 not out in the second innings. In his second match, he got Hashim Amla out for the third time in three consecutive innings.
