Three players have won their first England Lions call-ups, while Ben Duckett has earned a recall for the tour to India early next year.
England Lions are due to play India ‘A’ in a five-match unofficial ODI series before they contest a pair of first-class fixtures. The squads for the white-ball and red-ball series are similar to those picked for the tour of the UAE earlier this winter, but there is a trio of players who have won Lions recognition for the first time.
Zak Chappell, a hugely promising 22-year-old fast-bowling all-rounder who recently moved from Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire, has been picked for both legs of the tour. Like a number of other promising young quicks in the country, Chappell has had his fair share of injury problems in recent seasons but is highly thought of on the county circuit.
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Chappell joined Nottinghamshire at the end of the 2018 season[/caption]
Another youngster called up to the Lions squad for the first time is Nottinghamshire off-spinner Matthew Carter. He made headlines as a teenager taking a 7-56 on his first-class debut, but has found first-team opportunities relatively hard to come by. He has impressed selectors nevertheless and is set to fly out to India as part of the Lions’ white-ball squad.
He’ll be joined by county teammate Ben Duckett. It is easy to forget that Duckett, who played four Tests and three ODIs for England in the sub-continent in 2016, is still only 24. His England selection two years ago came off the back of a stellar season for Northamptonshire, where he scored 2,706 runs across all three formats.
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Duckett already has four Test caps to his name[/caption]
Since his meteoric rise, Duckett has found runs harder to come by. He moved to Trent Bridge from Northants towards the end of the 2018 season in a bid to resurrect his career.
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]The squad’s oldest member at 27, Tom Bailey, is set to make his first England Lions appearances. Bailey’s 64 wickets for Lancashire – the most taken by anybody in Division One of the County Championship – weren’t enough to save his county from relegation.
England Lions regulars Liam Livingstone and Nick Gubbins have been left out of both squads.
White-ball squad: Dom Bess (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Danny Briggs (Sussex), Matthew Carter (Nottinghamshire), Zak Chappell (Nottinghamshire), Joe Clarke (Nottinghamshire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Sam Hain (Warwickshire), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Yorkshire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Jamie Overton (Somerset), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Jamie Porter (Essex)
Red-ball squad: Tom Bailey (Lancashire), Dom Bess (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Danny Briggs (Sussex), Zak Chappell (Nottinghamshire), Joe Clarke (Nottinghamshire), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Sam Hain (Warwickshire), Max Holden (Middlesex) Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Yorkshire), Jamie Overton (Somerset), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Jamie Porter (Essex), Amar Virdi (Surrey)
