Ben Robert Dunk is an Australian professional cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 player. He plays for the Queensland Bulls

Queensland Bulls

The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...

 in Australian interstate cricket as a left-handed batsman

Batting (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...

. He can also play as a wicket-keeper

Wicket-keeper

The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...

.

Early career

Born in the northern Queensland town of Innisfail, Dunk moved to Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 early in his career to broaden his cricketing opportunities. He participated in a specialist cricket program at Mitchelton State High School before winning a Rugby and Cricket scholarship to Brisbane Boy's Grammar School. He played for the Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club

Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club

Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club is a cricket club playing in the XXXX Gold premiership, the leading club cricket competition in Queensland, Australia. Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club has produced some of the finest players to represent Queensland and Australia in one day and test...

 in Queensland's grade cricket competition and represented Queensland in youth representative teams. He was also in the Australian squad for the 2005 World Youth Cup.

Queensland career

Dunk made his debut for Queensland in December 2009, having been selected in the Twenty20

Twenty20

Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...

 team. Over six matches in the 2009-10 season, Dunk scored 142 runs off 99 balls, including an innings of 70 not out off 40 balls. He was called up into the Queensland Sheffield Shield team for the first time in October 2010, playing as a specialist batsman (Chris Hartley

Chris Hartley

Christopher Desmond "Chris" Hartley in Nambour, Queensland, is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Queensland Bulls in Australian domestic cricket. He is their first choice wicketkeeper batsman...

retained selection as Queensland's wicket-keeper).