England Lions head coach, Andrew Flintoff, has called up his 16-year-old son Rocky to the squad which will tour Australia in January next year.
The teenager made his senior professional debut for Lancashire earlier this year and has played four first-class matches and seven List A game since July.
The all-rounder has been a consistent performer for the England Young Lions and joins a squad featuring test match players Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley and Josh Tongue.
England Cricket hope to use the tour, which sees the Lions play two matches against a Cricket Australia XI and an unofficial four-day test match against Australia A, as part of preparations for next winter’s Ashes tour down under.
Flintoff’s call-up comes after he was promoted to the Lions squad for their South Africa tour earlier this month.
Bashir’s inclusion will be informative for the senior side, led by head coach Brendan McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, to see how he performs in Australian conditions. The off-spinner, who has played 15 test matches, is expected to be England’s first-choice spinner for the Ashes tour and any experience he can get with the Lions will be beneficial.
So too for the likes of Tongue. The pace bowler played in the 2023 Ashes series in England and impressed on his debut at Lord’s taking five wickets in the match. A pectoral injury has kept him out of action for over a year but with England transitioning to a new-look attack following the retirements of James Anderson and Stuart Broad there is scope for Tongue to cement his place in the side if he can get fit and back into form.
The squad also includes experienced hands like Warwickshire’s Alex Davies and Essex’s Sam Cook though many players have fewer than 10 first-class matches under their belts. Those include batters Ben McKinney, Freddie McCann and Hamza Shaikh as well as pacer pace John Turner.
England Lions squad for tour of Australia:
Sonny Baker (Hampshire), Shoaib Bashir (Somerset), Pat Brown (Derbyshire), James Coles (Sussex), Sam Cook (Essex), Alex Davies (Warwickshire), Rocky Flintoff (Lancashire), Tom Hartley (Lancashire), Tom Lawes (Surrey), Freddie McCann (Nottinghamshire), Ben McKinney (Durham), James Rew (Somerset), Hamza Shaikh (Warwickshire), Mitch Stanley (Lancashire), Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire), John Turner (Hampshire).
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