Finlay Bean is the bargain batsman Yorkshire are banking on to cover the absence of their superstars

Finlay Bean is the bargain basement batsman Yorkshire are banking on to cover the absence of their missing millionaires.

Bean, 21 next week, was a £2-an-hour mechanic 12 months ago. But with £1.35million Indian Premier League star Harry Brook and centrally-contracted duo Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow missing, he took his chance to become the first centurion of the 2023 County Championship.

Bean is an elegant left-hander who won seven one-day caps as a wicketkeeper batsman at England under-19 level. He is playing in only his fourth first-class match versus Leicestershire at Headingley, having turned down a place on the club’s academy pre-pandemic to experience the working world.

He did so at C&C Services, the family business based near Ripon, where earning below the minimum wage made him hungry to become a professional sportsman.

‘I was on £2 an hour. Because cricket was the main priority, my dad paid me just to keep me going. I worked 8 till 5, nine-hour days which looking back is ridiculous, although it’s all worked out in the long term,’ said Bean.

Yorkshire’s Finlay Bean struck the first century of the county season on Thursday

‘It was all about discipline and commitment, and those two years probably did more for me than I would’ve got out of training. I definitely appreciate my cricket a lot more now.

‘During lockdown, I was on the digger doing a bit of landscaping on site, then made my way into the garage — not necessarily willingly — with a plan to play cricket alongside that. But it turned into more of a full-time thing because it was quite hard to trial with counties at the time. ’

However, there was one distinct benefit of fixing up cars, vans and trucks. ‘I was always a small lad. I had two years on the spanners as a mechanic, so that helped me fill out and get my strength up.’

When Yorkshire invited him back into their fold, Bean displayed a perfect combination of power and patience to win a permanent deal. He did so through an innings last June that will be referenced whatever else he goes on to achieve in his career.

Marcus Trescothick’s record Second XI Championship score of 322 had stood for 25 years. Bean shattered it with a 441, studded with 52 fours and three sixes against Nottinghamshire.

‘I wasn’t contracted at the time, so it was a case of me wanting to put on a score that meant they had to offer me one,’ Bean said. ‘It was nice to perform like that on trial.’

The Yorkshire batsman, 21 next week, was a £2-an-hour mechanic 12 months ago

Within days, he was signing a £27,500-a-year rookie contract, which will need upgrading again before it expires this October.

Three appearances at the end of Yorkshire’s relegation season were naturally testing, but despite this and his pre-delivery movement getting him into bother against the country’s best bowlers, there was enough to suggest Yorkshire had unearthed another batter with huge potential.

Some of that potential flowered with the daffodils this week as he struck 118 — 20 of those runs coming in Rehan Ahmed’s opening over — in the process becoming the first county player to celebrate a three-figure innings in the 2023 season.

‘It’s always nice to tick things like that off, and hopefully I get a lot more confidence from that, and can help build towards a few wins,’ Bean said.