Player Profile
Left-arm seamer Josh Boyden made his first-team debut in 2024, playing three times in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup and once in the Rothesay County Championship. And he enjoyed impressive success with both ball and bat in the former competition.
Boyden, who turns 21 in the opening weeks of the 2025 summer, claimed two wickets in each of his three appearances in the 50-over competition. He took the new ball in each of them.
In the win against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in mid-August, he also hit a superb 44 not out off 35 balls from number nine, helping the Red Rose recover from 152-7 to 240-9. Having claimed two wickets in the defence, he then affected the run out of Gus Miller to seal victory.
A couple of weeks later, Boyden made his Championship debut in a defeat against champions Surrey at the Kia Oval.
Boyden signed his maiden rookie professional contract with Lancashire in July 2022, just a few months after starring at the Under 19s World Cup for England.
He has since signed an extension at Emirates Old Trafford to cover the 2025 season.
In a tournament which saw the young bucks reach the final in the Caribbean at the start of the year, only to be beaten by India, Boyden claimed 15 wickets in six appearances with his left-arm pace.
The joint best haul at the tournament got tongues wagging as he returned back-to-back four-wicket hauls early on, including one against defending champions Bangladesh.
In 2023, he played his first first-team game for Lancashire in the One-Day Cup warm-up clash with Cumbria at Sedbergh in late July, claiming an impressive 3-32 from eight overs in a victory.
Boyden learnt his game at Euxton CC, on the outskirts of Chorley, and has since moved to play Liverpool Competition cricket down the road for Wigan.
His main attribute is his ability to swing the ball into the right-hander, though he is by no means short of pace. He has also progressed his skills with the bat, slotting in up the order for Wigan and for the Red Rose twos.
That work paid off with the aforementioned Metro Bank 44. Earlier in the summer, batting at four, he hit an unbeaten 72 in a four-day Championship draw against Glamorgan.
He has worked his way through the Lancashire age-groups and made his second-team debut in 2020. In the early stages of 2024, he played twice for Cheshire in the National Counties T20 competition.
He was educated at Parklands High School in Chorley - the same school ex-Red Rose captain Tom Smith attended - and was back doing his A-Levels at Runshaw College quickly after his Under 19s World Cup exploits.
Boyden was described as one of the most exciting young bowlers in the country” by director of cricket performance Mark Chilton upon being awarded his maiden pro contract.