England and Hampshire fast bowler Sonny Baker says winning the young player of the year award at the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) awards was “awesome” but he wants to “keep improving”.
The 23-year-old enjoyed a successful 2026 in England where he won The Hundred with Manchester Super Giants, helped his county get to T20 Blast Finals Day and made his Test debut against New Zealand.
Baker also impressed for England in Brendon McCullum’s white-ball sides against Sri Lanka last month, with best figures of 3-12 in the first T20 game.
He is the first Hampshire player to win the young player of the year accolade.
“It’s awesome (to win the award),” he told BBC Sport.
“It always means more when it’s coming from guys who you respect and play against.
“It’s a massive honour for me to get voted by the rest of the guys and there’s some pretty cool names on the trophy – some guys on there have gone on to have phenomenal careers, so I’m very proud.”
On Thursday Baker was included in England’s squad for their one-day international tri-series in Pakistan.
Over the winter England have a packed schedule with white-ball games also against Australia before a Test series against South Africa.
Baker said as much as he hoped to be heavily involved, he would not get too far ahead of himself as he continued to develop his game.
“I think the beauty of it is actually trying not to look too far forward because there is so much on,” he added.
“For me the main thing is just trying to work on each section of the winter and then the year ahead and what am I trying to get out of it.
“If you keep stacking those periods of time on top of each other you’ll continually improve and that’s the main thing for me is just trying to keep improving.”