Bradley Thomas James Wheal (born 28 August 1996) is a South African-born Scottish cricketer who has played for the Scotland national cricket team since 2016. He is a right-handed fast medium bowler who bats right-handed. He has also played for several sides in English county cricket.
Wheal was born in Durban, South Africa, on 28 August 1996 to a Scottish mother. He attended Clifton School in Durban, where he matriculated in December 2014. He began his cricketing career with the Kwazulu-Natal youth teams, where he played up to under-19 level. He also represented the province in youth field hockey. While playing under-19 cricket, he was spotted by Hampshire coach Dale Benkenstein, who is also an assistant coach with the Dolphins in Durban.
Domestic career
Wheal impressed Benkestein and was offered a development contract with Hampshire for the 2015 season due to a shortage of fast bowlers at the county, with only Chris Wood and Tom Barber as available backups to the first team side.
Wheal impressed greatly in pre-season, performing well in games on the tour of Barbados and in a friendly against Kent. A strong performance then against Middlesex 2nd XI for Hampshire's 2nd XI where he took 10 wickets in the match and earned himself a call up to the first team for the match against Middlesex on 17 May 2015. Hampshire batted first in this match where Wheal batted at number 10 finishing 3 not out. In Middlesex's 1st innings Wheal took the wicket of opener Sam Robson for 10 runs by bowling him out. He finished with figures of 1/97 from his 20 overs as Middlesex where bowled out for 362. The match, which was rain affected, would end in a draw.
Wheal holds a British passport through his parentage. After joining Hampshire, he expressed an interest in representing England upon fulfilling the residential qualifications.[4]
Wheal is qualified to represent Scotland through his mother. In August 2015 he played for a Scotland XI against MCC at Titwood, Glasgow, taking seven wickets. He was subsequently fast-tracked to selection for the full Scotland team, and in December 2015 was named in the squad for the tour of Hong Kong, that took place the following month.[5][6]