Devon Conway

Eight years into his professional career, Devon Conway scored his maiden first-class double hundred for Gauteng in a three-day match in South Africa in 2017. Four years later he'd score another double, but this time for New Zealand on his Test debut, becoming only the second - but also the oldest - player to do so in the side, where he quickly established himself as an attacking but composed top-order batter with the ability to shift gears quickly to adapt to match situations.

After moving to New Zealand at 26, following that 2017 game against Border, Johannesburg-born Conway was handed a contract by Wellington for the 2018-19 domestic season. The next season he was the top run-scorer in all three domestic competitions, including a triple-century against Canterbury in Wellington's Plunket Shield-winning campaign that gave them the title for the first time since 2003-04.

A call-up to the national side seemed inevitable, though Conway had to bide his time to be eligible to play for New Zealand. When he did, in 2020 at the age of 29, he acquitted himself admirably and soon proved he had what it takes as a solid all-format batter at the top of the order. He scored three fifties in his first five T20Is, including a 99 not out against Australia in Christchurch in early 2021 that set up a series win.

More impressive yet was his start in Tests - his debut 200 against England in a draw was the first of five fifties in consecutive Tests, two of them hundreds. In 2022, he became the fastest New Zealand batter to 1000 Test runs, getting there in 19 innings. That year, he kicked New Zealand's T20 World Cup campaign off with an unbeaten 92 in a thrashing of Australia, though his side stumbled in the semi-final.

In 2023, in the first match of the ODI World Cup, Conway's 152 not out inflicted a thumping defeat on England. It proved to be a particularly prolific year for him - outside of his 1321 runs across formats, in his second season in the IPL, he was a vital cog in Chennai Super Kings' title run, his 672 runs coming at a strike rate of 139.7.