Sam Billings is an English cricketer who was born in Kent on June 15, 1991. Billings is a natural right-handed wicket-keeper batsman who is also recognised for his brilliant fielding skills. He’s so good in the outfield that he’s been known to throw away his gloves to save any runs at the plate for his team.
Billings is now recognised for his contributions to the development of cricket through charity organisations all around the world. He has coached disabled cricket teams and is a cricket patron in Rwanda, Africa.
The Beginning
Sam Billings, a brilliant all-round athlete, dabbled in football, basketball, golf, and squash before settling on cricket. Billings played for Loughborough MCCU while at university before joining his hometown Kent in the English County.
Billings, who excels in limited overs cricket, flourished in ODI and T20 matches in 2012, and was his team’s highest scorer in both the 40-over and T20 formats.
In 2013, he took over for Geraint Jones in domestic T20 competitions and the Kent county championship. In the 2014 Royal London One-Day Cup, he was the top run scorer.
In the 2015 Championship County, he scored 693 runs at an average of 30 to earn a place in the provisional ICC Cricket World Cup squad.
Debut
Despite being a member of the provisional squad for the World Cup, Billings did not get a chance to play for his country. The English selectors could no longer neglect him after he annihilated Somerset bowlers when scoring an undefeated 135 from 58 balls.
At the age of 23, he made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2015. He got off to a slow start, scoring just three runs on his debut and failing to make an impression over the course of the five-match series.
In the following series, he made his T20 debut, scoring 21 in his first match. He was a consistent pick in the squad for limited over formats, but he only played a few times since his debut, and never for more than two matches in a row.
Career
Sam Billings did not disappoint when he was given the opportunity to prove his worth behind the stumps. Billings took two catches and executed one good stumping on his wicket-keeping debut against Pakistan in a T20 match in 2015. He also scored 50 runs at a strike rate of more than 200 and was named Man of the Match for the first time.
He had a productive domestic season for Kent in 2016. He set a Kent record by becoming just the second wicketkeeper to take seven catches in a single innings. This season, Billings has set a new career high with a 171 in a match against Gloucestershire.
In 2016, he also scored 175 in a match against Pakistan at Canterbury, which was his best List-A score. In October 2016, he demonstrated his ODI prowess in a series against Bangladesh, where he scored his first half-century in the final match and led his team to a 2-1 series victory.
In 2017, he started playing back-to-back One-Day Internationals for the national team and was named vice-captain of his domestic side, Kent.
Club Career
In the Pakistan Super League, Islamabad United purchased Sam Billings in 2016 and he was retained for 2017. In the Indian Premier League, he made his debut in 2016 for Delhi Daredevils, scoring a half-century in the first match.
The Delhi Daredevils have also signed him for the 2017 season. In the 2016-17 Big Bash League season in Australia, he was a member of the Sydney Sixers.
He was purchased by Chennai Super Kings for Rs. 1 crore during the 2018 IPL auctions.