Warwickshire fast bowler Olly Stone is set to join the ECB's specialist pace bowling camp in South Africa whilst batsman Sam Hain has been named in a batting camp in India.
Stone will join England bowlers James Anderson and Mark Wood in Potchefstroom, which is designed as part of a fresh approach to supporting England and Lions level players, with Craig Overton and Ollie Robinson also named to work under the expertise of Lancashire head coach Glen Chapple and Durham’s Neil Killeen.
Alongside Overton and Robinson, Stone is attending as part of the Lions’ Individualised Programmes – a new approach that provides bespoke programmes for a targeted group of players, allowing them to focus on specific areas of improvement, as agreed with their counties and the players themselves.
As part of the Individualised Programmes, Hain is one of eight players to attend a camp in Mumbai to work with specialist spin bowling and batting coaches between 26 November-17 December.
Batsmen Will Jacks, James Bracey, Dan Lawrence and Keaton Jennings join Hain in working with Surrey assistant head coach Vikram Solanki, while spinners Dom Bess, Mason Crane and Amar Virdi will hone their skills with Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson.
In addition to these camps, the Individualised Programmes will see prospective England white ball players encouraged to play periods of franchise cricket, such as Liam Livingstone in the T20 tournaments in South Africa and Australia.
Others will play grade cricket in Australia, such as Warwickshire’s own Henry Brookes who is with Bayswater Morley CC in Western Australia, whilst also benefitting from specialist conditioning and medical support arranged locally by the ECB.
ECB Performance Director Mo Bobat said: “The Individualised Programmes are a great opportunity for some of our best young cricketers to focus on specific areas of their game in unfamiliar and challenging conditions around the world. It’s a great example of how a strong and joined up pathway and county system can support Ed Smith’s succession planning whilst delivering better prepared players to Chris Silverwood and England.
“While these two camps have overall themes of pace and spin, each player in attendance will have a uniquely tailored training programme. Some of the players involved are in England’s immediate plans, while others will be working on areas that will benefit the national team’s medium- and long-term needs.
“We’re fortunate to be working with a number of high-quality coaches and support staff to help deliver this fresh approach to our programming, which is testament to the strong links we have with the counties.”
