Teenage Leicestershire leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed named in England Lions squad

Teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed has been called up by England Lions, joining four Test players on next month’s trip to the United Arab Emirates.

The 15-man squad will travel to the UAE on November 6 for a training camp, before taking on Ben Stokes’ senior England side in a three-day match that serves as a warm-up for the Test series in Pakistan.

Leicestershire prospect Ahmed, 18, has long been touted for international honours and ended the county season with a maiden five-for and a maiden century in the same match against Derbyshire.

He netted with England’s limited-overs side at Emirates Old Trafford earlier this summer, where he was treated to a one-on-one training session with Adil Rashid.

Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Matthew Potts and Matthew Fisher, all of whom have played Test cricket in 2022, are the highest profile names in the Lions squad.

ECB performance director Mo Bobat offered an excited assessment of Ahmed’s future prospects, revealing that he was already receiving plenty of interest from the global T20 circuit but was being guided by the national side.

“Rehan is someone we have a really high opinion of. He’s in that category of player: young, high potential, has done some things on TV that caught people’s attention and he’s inundated with franchise opportunities coming his way,” he said.

“English cricket has a responsibility to manage him well. How do we give him some of that franchise dosage when it’s right? So he gets used to playing with expectation, in front of crowds and on TV, whilst making sure he has a rounded development and gets a red ball in his hand and can practice his stock delivery. So we keep him inspired and excited by everything England has to offer.

“I am spending time working with Leicestershire trying to map out a medium to long-term plan for the next few years so we can put the right experiences in front of him.”

Durham quick Potts was considered unlucky not to make the full Test squad after a highly impressive start to his England career – taking 20 wickets in five appearances in the summer – and has a chance to prove that decision was wrong when the two teams face off between November 23-25.

Fellow seamer Fisher, who made his Test debut in Barbados in March, also has plenty to play for after missing the majority of the county season for Yorkshire with a stress fracture.

Hameed and Lawrence take their places among the batters, the former having been cut loose after a chastening Ashes last winter and the latter not seen since Brendon McCullum and Stokes took charge of the red-ball team.

• Test preparations: J Anderson, J Leach, W Jacks, J Overton, O Robinson.

• Rehab: J Archer, S Mahmood, B Carse.

Somerset captain Tom Abell and Lancashire batter Josh Bohannon are two of the more established domestic performers in the uncapped Lions list, while Essex paceman Sam Cook is rewarded for his consistent quality across the formats.

Jack Carson and Liam Patterson-White are included as spinners, which looks to be bad news for Dom Bess and Matt Parkinson, whose stock appears to have fallen. Sam Conners, Tom Haines, Jack Haynes, Lyndon James and Jamie Smith complete the group.

Bobat offered some explanations for those who will not be part of the travelling group. He explained that Bess was due to spend time in Australia working on his game as part of a tie-up with New South Wales and Parkinson was spending time with his Lancashire coach Carl Crowe working on his technique.

Dom Sibley is keen to spend the early part of his winter with Surrey, having just re-signed for the county champions, and Craig Overton is managing a back problem.

All four will be considered for a Lions tour to Sri Lanka in the new year, comprising two four-day ‘Tests’ and three 50-over games.