'I think I earned my spot' - Jake Lehmann

Jake Lehmann's surname was always going to be an issue. Not for him, necessarily, but for others. How could it not be? He is the son of Darren Lehmann, former Test cricketer, South Australia legend, and now Australia coach. When Jake chose to pursue a career in cricket he was always going to be watched closely, by supporters and tall-poppy cutters alike.

That is inevitable for young men in the position Lehmann found himself in two years ago, when he was handed his first state contract. In similar circumstances some are crushed by the weight of expectation, by unfair comparisons to their father. Others - like Shaun and Mitchell Marsh, Stuart Broad, Shaun Pollock - thrive domestically and forge international careers of their own.

It is too early to say which camp Lehmann will fall into, but the initial signs are encouraging. In his first full season of Sheffield Shield cricket last summer, Lehmann scored three centuries - he turned his first into 205 against Tasmania in Hobart - and posted 623 runs at 44.50 from eight matches. Now Lehmann, who has just turned 24, is about to make his debut for Australia A.

In one way his rise has been rapid: it was only 16 months ago that he made his first-class debut. But in another sense his journey began as a kid, watching Darren and his mates represent Australia. While there was never any pressure on Lehmann from his father to play cricket, it would have been difficult not to fall in love with the game given the exposure he received to it at a young age.

"There was heaps of upside that I was offered as a kid, things some people can only dream of doing," Lehmann told ESPNcricinfo. "Going into the rooms during the Boxing Day Test and playing indoor cricket with Michael Clarke, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, you can keep naming them. You go and have Christmas with them.

"Even back in South Australia, just walking around the Oval and chatting to the players because you know them and they know you. Some kids dream of doing that, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it my whole life."

Darren's international career spanned a time when Jake was aged 4 to 12, formative years by anyone's definition. He nominates Michael Hussey as an idol - "a left-hander, brilliant in all three formats, something I'm aspiring to" - but it is perhaps no wonder that the younger Lehmann has ended up batting more than a bit like his dad.

"It's just something that's happened," he said. "I've never planned or modelled on the old man, but both being left-handed - a lot of left-handers like to cut and cover drive, because the ball is always going across you. That's part and parcel of being a left-hander.

"The old man, we still don't really talk a whole heap of cricket. We do talk some cricket but it's not the be all and end all for us - there are other things in life. Growing up, he never forced me to play cricket, never pushed it upon me. I just fell in love with the game, like a lot of people have. It went from there."

Lehmann was by no means fast-tracked into elite cricket. He was 22 when he made his first-class debut, and a half-century in his maiden Sheffield Shield innings gave him confidence that he deserved to be there. And three hundreds last summer proved beyond all doubt that Lehmann is where he is because of his own talent, not his name.

"Growing up there were always higher expectations," Lehmann said. "Once I finally got my crack - people can say what they want to say, but I think I earned my spot and hopefully I've showed a couple of people that that was correct as well."

His 2015-16 Shield campaign earned an Australia A call-up, and he will be part of the batting order when they take on South Africa A in a series of two first-class matches in Queensland starting on Saturday. And while his name (and his elaborate moustache) might be the most recognisable things about Jake Lehmann, there is more to him than that.

Away from cricket, he has studied human movement and health science at university, and is now completing a masters in primary-school teaching. It is worth noting that Hussey too studied to become a teacher, and ended up not only as one of the Test team's finest batsmen but most rounded individuals.

"I like it, I think it's good to get a bit of balance outside of cricket," Lehmann said. "If you've had a tough day, you can go away and do some study or go to the footy club. You find a bit of balance in life."