Born on July 28, 1978 in Palmerston North, Jacob Oram can also be referred to as a gentle giant thanks to his towering 1.98m personality. An all-rounder of class, Oram is a left handed batsman and a right arm medium fast bowler. Injury and Oram have always gone together. He missed a vital part of the 2001 season with a foot injury.

Oram made his debut in seamer friendly conditions against India in 2002-03 and enjoyed those conditions to the hilt taking 11 wickets in the 2-test series. This included career best figures of 4/41 at Hamilton. He had a wonderful time with the ball in the ODIs that followed as he snaffled up career best figures of 5/26 at Auckland. Oram followed his bowling heroics with some outstanding batting in the next summer against South Africa with 273 runs at a superb average of 91 in the 3-Test series. This series also saw him registering his maiden Test century at Hamilton. In fact South Africa was to prove to be his favorite opposition as he scored his career best knock of 133 at Centurion in April, 2006. The injuries though took its toll on him and Oram retired from Test cricket in 2009 to prolong his career.