“I’ve never seen the Under-19s play at Test level, and for all of us the chance to test ourselves against the best young players from South Africa is a really exciting one.”

- Jon Lewis, England Young Lions Head coach

Great news that the Midd’s Ethan Bamber and Luke Hollman have been selected for the upcoming Under 19 series between England and South Africa. The series will comprise –

July 3 to 6 – Warm up 4 day game against the Unicorns at Loughborough

July 8 to 11 – First Test v South Africa at Scarborough

July 16 to 19 – Second Test v South Africa at Chester-le-Street, Durham

July 23 – First ODI v South Africa at Chester-le-Street, Durham (to be shown live on Sky)

July 26 – Second ODI v South Africa at Gosforth

July 27 – Third ODI v South Africa at Scarborough

Unfortunately, Ethan has picked up an injury which is likely to keep him out of the Tests but he hopes to be fit for selection for the ODIs. Luke is already in Loughborough preparing for the warm up match against the Unicorns, a team of professionals not currently playing for any first class county.

Jon Lewis will be head coach for the series; he was initially appointed for the World Cup in New Zealand last winter in which Ethan and Luke both featured. He will be joined for both the four-day and one-day matches by two more former England cricketers who are now developing their coaching careers in county cricket, Mal Loye and Min Patel, as batting and spin-bowling coaches respectively. Neil Killeen, the former Durham seamer, continues as fast-bowling coach and Andy Mitchell of Middlesex will be the strength and conditioning coach.

We will keep you updated on the series as it progresses.

We also are hoping to have more good news to report when the selections for the England squad to compete in the Indoor Junior World Series are announced later this week. The Series is to be held in the Autumn 2018 in New Zealand.