Players who looked like future England Cricketers - Week 1

Alex Lees – Leading Yorkshire at the age of 22 without 7 first teams players (and a Sidebottom injury mid match) to victory over Worcestershire means that Lees has never looked more of an international player in waiting. Lees has all the shots in the book and in particular his driving through the offside is sublime. The one area Lees needs to work on before international cricket is facing spin bowling and specifically defensively and rotation of the strike. He can be a little cumbersome in striding forward and will need to be a little lighter on his feet when forced to come up against decent spin. It appears he has the attacking strokes and the temperament to be a success at international level.

Craig Miles – On a slow wicket at Northampton Miles again showed his promise and ability to take wickets when conditions were against him. Miles has a touch of young Stuart Broad about him with a rhythmical run to the crease and ability to get good lift from the wicket. He seems to have recovered from the injuries of last season and regained some of his pace and his action seems once again more fluid. The key area where he stands above most of his contemporaries is his ability to get good batsmen out in placid conditions – those are key ingredients in making a test bowler. This stems from the bounce that he gets from the wicket and an ability to cut the ball around. For now he will need to continue to work on his bowling consistency and make sure that his batting continues to improve so that he could be a viable option at 8 or 9 in the batting order. David Willey also shone in the match but Miles was the bowler who stood out as someone with the potential to step up a level.