for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club – an invitation made at the suggestion of Ken, who was already playing as a bowler for the club. On the basis of Graveney's performances, he was offered a contract to play for the county for £200 annually and although he enjoyed life in the army, he accepted. Cricketing career Gloucestershire and England He played his first first-class match for Gloucestershire against Oxford University Cricket Club in April 1948 but failed to score, and did not become a regular member of the side until later in the season. He was the 12th man when the county played the touring Australian team of 1948 – known as "the Invincibles" – who scored 783 runs for 6 wickets. In the 1949 season, he scored 1,784 runs and started to be mentioned as a potential England player. At that time, selectors were having difficulty finding new batsmen to play alongside Len Hutton and Denis Compton, and tried many possibilities. After Compton had sustained an injury, Graveney was selected for the Old Trafford Test match against South Africa in 1951, scoring 15 runs. Graveney was not selected for the following Test match, but joined the 1951–52 tour of India and Pakistan after scoring 2,291 runs for Gloucestershire during the season. He scored his first Test century on this tour, taking eight hours to score 175 runs in the second Test in Bombay (after missing the first because of dysentery). By the end of the tour, he had established his place in the national team, and (in the words of The Times) was regarded as "England's outstanding young batsman", along with Peter May. Graveney's attacking style as a batsman did not find favour with Hutton, the captain, who (in the words of one commentator) "did not want flowery batsmen but fighters" in the attempt to regain the Ashes from Australia. In the late afternoon of the Test match at Lord's in 1953, when Hutton and Graveney were in control with the score at 143 for 1 and Graveney was looking to score a century, Hutton told Graveney to stop attacking for the rest of the day and only 34 runs were scored in the last hour. Early the next morning, Graveney was dismissed by the refreshed Australian bowling attack without adding to his overnight score of 78. Nevertheless, England won the series and took the Ashes, which Australia had held