Sam Billings

Samuel William Billings (born 15 June 1991) is an English professional cricketer.

Billings is a right-handed batsman who fields as a wicket-keeper.

He was born at Pembury in Kent and has played for Kent County Cricket Club sides since he was eight years old, making his senior debut for the First XI in 2011.

Billings made his first-class debut for Loughborough MCCU against Northamptonshire in 2011.

He made a further first-class appearance for the team in 2011, against Leicestershire.

In his four first-class matches for Loughborough MCCU, he scored 321 runs at an average of 45.85, with a high score of 131.

This score came in his debut match against Northamptonshire.

Whilst at university Billings was also a member of the Kent squad, and he made his debut for the county in May 2011 in a first-class match against his university side, Loughborough MCCU.

During the 2011 season he also made his List A debut for Kent against the Netherlands in the 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40, standing in for regular wicket-keeper Geraint Jones.

Billings made three further List A appearances in the 2011 season, as well as playing in four matches in the 2011 Friends Provident t20.

After leading the county in one day runs scored in 2012, Billings replaced former England wicket-keeper Jones in Kent's 2013 Friends Life t20 campaign.

At the end of the season he kept wicket in the County Championship, breaking Jones' string of 115 consecutive Championship appearances for Kent before playing Sydney Grade Cricket for Penrith District Cricket Club during the 2013–14 English winter.

Billings became the first choice wicket-keeper for Kent in the 2014 season.

Billings was first called into the England Performance Programme in 2014 and took part in a training camp in Sri Lanka during the represented the English winter.

He played for in the champion county match in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the 2015 season before scoring 693 runs at an average of 29.80 in the 2015 County Championship season and making his England One Day and T20 debuts.

He was awarded his Kent county cap in August 2015 during the annual Canterbury Cricket Week and signed a contract extension with Kent, in January 2016.

After spending the winter playing one-day international cricket with England and featuring in both the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 competitions, Billings returned to Kent at the end of May having missed six County Championship matches as well as the start of both one-day competitions.

During the 2016 season he became only the second Kent wicket-keeper to take seven catches in an innings and the tenth to claim nine dismissals in a first-class match, both one short of equalling the record for the county, and made his highest score in first-class cricket.

Billings spent the following winter playing for England in Bangladesh, Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League and for England again in India and the West Indies as well as once again playing in the PSL and IPL.

In October 2017 he was appointed as the vice-captain of the team before being appointed as captain in January 2018, replacing Sam Northeast.

He served as the club's captain until the end of the 2023 season when he resigned, although he retained the captaincy of the club's Twenty20 cricket side.

Billings is regarded as a versatile cricketer who studies the game intensely and has an imaginative range of scoring shots.

He has appeared mainly in limited overs formats for the England cricket team and made his Test cricket debut in January 2022.

He has played Twenty20 franchise cricket in the Pakistan Super League, Indian Premier League and in the Big Bash League in Australia and captained Oval Invincibles in the first two seasons of The Hundred.

Billings was born at Pembury in Kent and grew up on his family's farm in the north of the county.

He developed as a good all-round sportsman, playing tennis for Kent and being offered a trial for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club after scoring a hat-trick against the team's academy side whilst playing for Corinthian under-14s.

He also played racquets, squash and rugby.

His grandfather, Ron Billings, was a racquets champion and his cousin, Tom Billings, has been world champion of the sport.

Billings attributes racquets with helping to develop his batting skills, in particular his hand-eye coordination.

Billings attended New Beacon School in Sevenoaks, and then Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, appearing regularly for their cricket XI throughout his school career.

He studied for a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at Loughborough University.

Billings has said that he was "nowhere near good enough" to become a professional cricketer before his time at university and credits it with encouraging him to work hard to develop his talent.

England duty again kept him away from Kent for parts of the 2017 season and he played in only six of the county's County Championship matches during the season, although he was ever present during the T20 Blast.

He averaged 43.66 in the Championship games he played and captained the side in a tour match against the West Indies in August.

At the end of the season he signed a new contract with Kent and was appointed officially as the team's vice-captain.

Following Sam Northeast's removal as Kent captain in early 2018 Billings was appointed to the post as his replacement, despite some disquiet about his participation in the 2018 Indian Premier League.

This meant that he missed the first part of the County Championship and One Day Cup seasons.

The team was captained by Joe Denly in Billings' absence.

Later in the season Billings once again signed a contract extension.

Billings captained Kent Spitfires to the 2021 T20 Blast title, beating Somerset in the final by 25 runs to win the tournament and their second domestic T20 title.