Coming from a football crazy family, James Alexander Porter is an English cricketer who has played first-class cricket for Essex since 2014. He is a slim and lanky medium-fast seam bowler with speeds in the range of 80 mph. His main strength lies in moving the ball both ways, off the seam and in the air. This made him a big threat for the batsmen, especially in the seam and swing-friendly English conditions.
It was during the 2005 Ashes when a 12-year-old Porter fell in love with cricket and to play for England became his ultimate dream. In the 2011/12 season, Porter attended the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy. His talent was noticed and he was selected in the Essex Second XI team. The pacer was then selected in the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Young Cricketers squad in 2013. Even after playing second-team cricket for 3 years for the MCC Young Cricketers and Chingford CC in the Essex League, the teenager was not able to get into the Essex or Middlesex County teams.
Given where he was during the winter of 2013-14, Porter started contemplating giving up cricket and even took a job as a recruitment consultant. However, in the 2014 season, the young seamer decided to give cricket one last go with Essex. He put in some impressive performances for the Essex second XI team. With Porter doing well for his club side and the Essex team facing some injury issues with some of its main players, the medium pacer was selected in the Essex County team. He made his first-class debut against Kent in September 2014 and took a wicket with his fifth ball in senior cricket. After that, it was no looking back for the youngster.
Porter played his first full season for Essex in 2015 where he picked up more than 50 wickets. In the first 10 County Championship matches, Porter picked up 38 wickets and immediately announced his arrival. In 2015, during a match against the touring Australians, Porter picked up six wickets to further prove his potential. A testimony of Porter's confidence and competitive nature was on display when in the tour game against Australia, the youngster got rid of the fiery opener David Warner. Interestingly, before the game, he had vowed to take his wicket. In the summer of 2016, Jamie picked up 55 Division Two wickets and was the key to Essex winning the County Championship and getting promoted to Division One.
In 2017 season, Porter continued to take giant strides in his career. On the back of his contribution to the Essex team that year, James was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year, in April 2018. Soon after that, he was handed his maiden call-up for the national team for the Test series against India.
