Michael Pepper

Wicketkeeper-batter Michael Pepper signed a summer contract with Essex in 2018 after a string of impressive performances for the 2nd XI in 2017. Pepper played his club cricket for Cambridge Granta in the East Anglian Premier League. His Championship debut came in a day-night affair against Somerset at Chelmsford in June that year. Essex held him in such high regard that they felt able to release their long-serving keeper James Foster at the end of the season.

Pepper made 92 in his fourth first-class match, against Durham at Chester-le-Street early in the 2021 season, but his promise was most obvious in white-ball cricket. He led the run-scoring for Essex in the Blast, and went further the following summer, smacking 439 runs at a strike rate of 163.19 - performances which won him a chance as a replacement for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred.
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