25 is too low for a test player. Few players make their debuts before 25, and fewer have become "rising stars" by that age. I definitely feel 27/28 is the borderline.

27/28 is a ridiculous age to go up to... almost every Test nation has a 23-24 year old of promise, so lets focus upon them? Taking it to 28 would be ridiculous.. 28 is the age they should be performing, not rising!! If teams do not have players in their early twenties on the rise then they will really be in trouble in 5 years

My Picks - all under 25

Pakistan - Butt
India - Yuvraj Singh
England - Bell
Australia - Clarke
Bangladesh - Mohammad Ashraful
South Africa - AB DeVilliers
West Indies - Bravo

Sri Lanka and New Zealand really do not have any obvious candidates under 25!!

Ridiculous or not, 27 does not make a test player mature or old IMO, especially not in Jones' case given his injury history and the limits it has placed on his development and number of games played.

So do we have to treat every case upon experience of test/FC rather than their age? Maybe a bit of both?

You have to draw a line and if you are going to talk about a "young rising star" then the emphasis needs to be on the young. If you wanted to talk about just rising stars then you could include

Strauss, S.Jones; Hussey; Kaneria; etc...

but as the word used is young, I think that means a focus upon age rather than experience

I think it would be age rather than experience in just "tests" also. If we did Shaun Udal would be classed as young!

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Watch this for a perfect about.
James May

Very good point Vrock...

Graeme Smith by a land slide he is only 24 just about to turning 25 this year

why has everyone forgotten about m.ashraful he destroyed the england and aussie attacks last year in the natwest hes definately future of bangladesh and world cricket.Top young guns would be peter fulton,pietersen and vettori

Ashraful was mentioned by two of us, not that I remember him "destroying" our attack. I also agree about Smith, though given his performance he is no longer "promising" and now a well-recognised player IMO, I think de Villiers is SA's premier promising youngster now.