Player Profile
Spinner Jack Morley is still in the infancy of his county career, playing only 30 matches for Lancashire’s first-team. But he has shown more than enough to indicate there are exciting things ahead for this left-arm spinner from Rochdale.
Morley, 22-years-old, has only played first-class and List A cricket for the Red Rose, debuting in the former format during the shortened Covid summer of 2020.
He first appeared in the Bob Willis Trophy that summer and has gone on to take 25 wickets in nine red ball appearances through to the start of the 2024 campaign, including two four-wicket hauls and one five-for.
He took 4-62 in the second innings of a debut win over Derbyshire at Liverpool in 2020 before 4-91 in the first innings of an early season County Championship win over Gloucestershire at Emirates Old Trafford in 2022.
Later in the summer, Morley claimed seven wickets in the high-scoring draw against Somerset at Southport, including 5-69 in the second innings.
He also played six times in the One-Day Cup, the last of them in the quarter-final win over Nottinghamshire at Blackpool.
The previous summer’s One-Day Cup (2021) actually proved somewhat of a breakthrough campaign for Morley, him taking nine wickets in seven outings. He later described it as, “The best period of my life in term of cricket”.
Either side of that, he returned hauls of 7-59 and and 6-54 in second-team Championship matches against Glamorgan and Durham, the latter contributing to a victory.
In 2023, Morley claimed 18 wickets in 13 first-team appearances (five in the Championship). Unfortunately, his impressive 3-40 from 10 overs couldn’t prevent a One-Day Cup defeat against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl in August.
The previous month, he had taken a pair of six-wicket hauls in a second-team Championship win over Durham at Burnopfield (match figures of 12-177).
The product of the Heywood club is an admirer of Ashes spinners Jack Leach and Nathan Lyon due to their control, and he will get the chance to spend plenty of time with the latter in 2024 given the Aussie has signed on as one of Lancashire’s overseas players.
He played age-group cricket for Lancashire’s Under 15s and 17s and joined the county’s Academy in 2018, signing his maiden professional contract ahead of 2019.
Morley has also tasted ECB Super 4s cricket - a competition for the most talented young players in the country - and went on to play for the England Under 19s in the 2019 summer.
He is yet to make his first-team T20 debut for the Lightning, but he helped the county win the second-team title in 2018, recording 2-5 from two overs in the rain-affected final victory over Essex at Arundel.