Player Profile
Michael Jones has come home, the versatile Scotland international batter signing a three-year contract at Emirates Old Trafford ahead of the 2025 season.
Ormskirk-born Jones made his name in the county game with Durham, but he came up through the Lancashire age-groups before departing in search of more opportunities.
Jones, aged 27, qualifies for Scotland through his Aberdonian mother.
He made his senior debut for both Durham and for Scotland in 2018.
“Being from Lancs, I was in the junior set-up until Under 17s or 19s maybe,” he explained earlier this winter. “I then started playing more cricket for Scotland, and that’s how I ended up at Durham I suppose - through trialling and playing against them for Scotland.”
He has played 27 limited overs internationals for Scotland, topping 600 runs to date with bests of 87 in ODI cricket and 86 in T20s.
He can open the batting or bat in the middle order against both the red ball and white. That he was used as a finisher for Durham in white ball cricket last summer indicates an ability to strike the ball long and hard.
To date, Jones has made 128 senior appearances for club and country across all formats and sits just shy of 4,000 runs. He played once for the Northern Superchargers in the 2024 Hundred and has also represented the Desert Vipers in the ILT20 competition in the UAE in recent years, including at the start of 2025.
The tall right-hander has scored three centuries in first-class cricket and one in List A.
One of those first-class tons was a superb 206 opening the batting for Durham against Middlesex in the Rothesay County Championship in mid-2022. All of his first-class centuries have come as an opener, whereas his List A ton came whilst batting at five in the One-Day Cup three summers ago.
Amongst his international appearances, Jones has played against major nations such as England, Australia and New Zealand.
At last summer’s T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, he opened the batting against England at Barbados in a clash which was ultimately rained off and scorched an unbeaten 45 off 30 balls.
He played second-team county cricket for Derbyshire and Leicestershire, as well as Durham, prior to making his first-team debut for the latter almost seven years ago.
He also played club cricket for hometown team Ormskirk prior to signing for the North East county.
Jones first represented the Red Rose as an Under 14.
While his signing was announced by the club at the start of August 2024, the deal had been completed a couple of weeks previous - before a Metro Bank One-Day Cup appearance for Durham against Lancashire at Sedbergh School.
Durham won that, and Jones hit 41 not out off 21 balls late in the first innings to get the visitors up to what proved to be an unassailable total of 344-4.