Alex Davies delighted on being picked in England Lions squad

Lancashire player Alex Davies had admitted that he is delighted at being called up to the England Lions squad for their winter tour to Australia. He is named in his first Lions squad alongside his county colleagues Keaton Jennings, Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood for a trip Down Under to shadow the Ashes squad which will compete against Australia. The youngster has enjoyed a considerable success with both bat and the gloves this year.

Davies scored a massive 1,046 first-class runs for Lancashire this summer, including 916 in the Championship with three centuries. He was terrific behind the stumps as well claiming 48 dismissals in Division One. This has all come off the back of an injury ravaged 2016, forcing him into knee surgery and an intense recovery through the most recent winter. However, the 23-year-old has worked hard since coming back and has finally reaped rewards for his efforts.

I don’t like not being in control of things

Alex Davies admitted that he was chasing the Lions squad from the last couple of years and worked hard keeping the goal in mind. “That’s been my goal for the last couple of years. Since the injury, the next step on the ladder was to perform for Lancashire, but then to achieve further honours. It’s another small step. I want to keep wicket for England, and I see the winter as a big opportunity to work hard on my keeping,” said the optimistic Davies.

He also said that he was a bit nervous after losing his wicket against Surrey in the last game of the season. “I did a bit of training with England around the Test Match at Headingley (against the West Indies in August). I had a couple of days there with Bruce French. It was just training and throwing balls. During the season, the Lions is one of your goals and you’re working towards it. But as soon as I got out in the second innings against Surrey last week, it was weird because I’d done everything I could to press my case,” he added.

Alex does not like the feeling of things not being in his control as he went on to say that once he was dismissed in the final game, all he could do was to wait for the squad to be announced. “I couldn’t do any more, and it was frustrating that it was out of my control. “Once you walk off that pitch in the last game to the moment it gets announced, you can’t do anything. And I don’t like that feeling of not being in control. Throughout the season, you’ve always got another game or another innings to prove yourself and add to the tally. As soon as that game’s done, I couldn’t do anything else. From then, I tried not to think about it. But I’m over the moon, and the last 12 months of hard work has paid off for me,” he signed off with a happy face.

The Lions will spend a week at the Performance Centre in Loughborough before flying to Brisbane on November 14, for a two-week camp with a red-ball focus. That culminates in a three-day match against a Queensland XI at the Allan Border Oval from November 27-29, although this will not be an official England Lions fixture.