Lyth bares his soul on Facebook

Adam Lyth has taken to Facebook to express his disappointment at his Ashes summer and say that the experience has made him hungrier to succeed.

It has been widely assumed in the English media that Lyth's dropping for England's series against Pakistan in the UAE is inevitable - and the odds are that they will be proved right.

But Lyth has spilled out his belief that he still has a Test future in a perhaps unique Facebook statement: bare-the-soul honesty approaching 900 words in which he thanks England's selectors for sticking with him in a series in which he made only 115 runs in five Tests at 12.77.

"I don't really pay attention to people talking about who will open in the UAE with Alastair Cook, it's completely out of my hands who the selectors pick. I know exactly what I have to do and that is score big runs for Yorkshire, it's as simple as that... It really does mean a hell of a lot that the captain, coach and selectors have stuck with me.

Failure in international sport can be a lonely place, especially after the emotional highs and lows of a series like the Ashes, and Lyth makes the point of thanking his Facebook followers for "incredible support".

"I have only played seven Tests at the minute and to have achieved that is fantastic," he writes. "Hopefully there are many more matches and many more series to come but I know I need to go back to Yorkshire and score lots of runs.

"This experience has made me hungrier, you don't become a bad player overnight and you don't in five games either.

"It could have gone better on a personal note but that's cricket and that can happen when you're facing one of the best attacks in the world on testing pitches. Going forwards I have learnt a lot in this series and hopefully I can go back to Yorkshire, score some runs and help them with the County Championship.

"I can't really put my low scores down to one thing. The Aussies have bowled well in testing conditions, I have copped some decent balls but I've played some bad shots which I'm disappointed about."