James Peter Faulkner is an Australian cricketer who plays for Tasmania. An all-rounder, left-arm medium pacer and right-hand batsman, Faulkner is particularly known for his aggressive batting in the middle order, and for his bowling at the "death". He was a prominent member of the victorious Australian squad that won the 2015 Cricket World Cup and was Man of the Match in the 2015 Cricket World Cup final.
Domestic career
He captained the Tasmanian Under-17 team while already in the state's Under-19 team and the Tasmanian Second XI. Faulkner earned himself a state rookie contract for 2007–08 and a place in the Australian Under-19 team at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and a position in the Australian Cricket Academy's development squad for 2007. He was part of the Pune Warriors India team in IPL 2011, and then a part for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2012. However he has just played three IPL matches between IPL 2011 and IPL 2012. During the 2013 Indian Premier League players auction, he was bought by the Rajasthan Royals for $400,000. Faulkner picked 28 wickets at an average of 15.25 in IPL 2013, the second most wickets in a single IPL season. He has received two man of the matches in IPL 2014 vs RCB and in IPL 2015 vs KXIP respectively. Faulkner was man of the match in the 2012–13 Sheffield Shield final, helping Tasmania secure its third title.
International career
On 1 February 2012, Faulkner made his Twenty20 International debut for Australia against India. Despite his current status as a pace bowler, he started as an aspiring leg-spin bowler, which he now uses his topspinner or yorker-length googly as his slower ball variation. Faulkner was selected for the squad to tour England in 2013. He was selected for the fifth test. Australian selector John Inverarity described Faulkner as the sort of player who "gets things done", while captain Michael Clarke said that Faulkner could provide some toughness that Australian might have lacked in its previous tests. Throughout 2013, Faulkner established himself as a regular member of Australia's One Day team. In the 3rd ODI against India, he hit 64 off 29 balls, including 30 runs off an Ishant Sharma over, to win the game for Australia. Faulkner hit his maiden ODI century against India on 2 November 2013 in Bengaluru. This is the second fastest century by any Australian batsman. It was scored off 57 balls. In the 2015 Cricket World Cup Final, Faulkner took 3/36 and received the Man of the Match award and became a member of the World Cup winning team. During the second ODI against Sri Lanka on 24 August 2016, Faulkner took a hat-trick becoming 6th Australian to do so, and also second against Sri Lanka after Daniel Christian.
