Nottinghamshire’s new signing Paul Coughlin is among a 17-man England Lions squad who will take part in a training camp in Australia this winter.
The 24-year-old all-rounder has been selected for the trip alongside Essex’s Specsavers County Championship winning trio, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Porter and Tom Westley, which will be based first in Brisbane, and then in Perth, between November 14 and December 16.
In addition, Chris Silverwood, the head coach of the county champions, will join the Lions for a second consecutive winter, as fast bowling coach. Adam Hollioake, the former Surrey and England captain, is appointed as fielding coach.
Westley is one of three members of the squad who played Test cricket this summer, with Keaton Jennings and Mark Wood also selected.
Ben Duckett completes a quartet of players with Test caps, and the Lancashire all-rounder Liam Livingstone is the fifth member of the squad with senior international experience.
Porter and Lawrence made their debuts for the Lions this summer, with Coughlin one of four players included who have yet to play for the Lions – Dom Bess, Alex Davies and Amar Virdi are the others.
James Whitaker, the National Selector, said: “This camp provides an opportunity for emerging young talent and some players with international experience to work hard on their game in Australia, in excellent facilities, under the guidance of Andy Flower and our other lead coaches. The players selected have a range of experience, and we believe they are an exciting group.
“This is a great chance for them to impress, before we select another Lions squad for the games against West Indies A in the second half of the winter.
“We would expect a number of other players to be in contention for that squad – for example Haseeb Hameed was not considered for the Australia camp to avoid him having to rush back from the injury he suffered recently playing for Lancashire.”
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 culminating in a three-day match against a Queensland XI at the Allan Border Oval from November 27 to 29 – although this will not be an official England Lions fixture.
They then head west to Perth for two weeks focusing on white-ball skills during which they will play three T20 matches against a Scorchers team who will be preparing for the Big Bash.
The Lions squad for a seven-week trip to the West Indies in 2018, including three four-day matches and three 50-over fixtures, will be selected in December, along with the squads for the North-South Series which follows in Barbados in March.
England Lions: Dom Bess (Somerset), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Paul Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), George Garton (Sussex), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Tom Helm (Middlesex), Keaton Jennings (Lancashire), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Jamie Porter (Essex), Amar Virdi (Surrey), Tom Westley (Essex), Mark Wood (Durham).
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