Steven Davies: sending Matt Prior a warning

Steven Davies, in line to be England’s first left-handed Test keeper since Jack Russell, has wintered with national teams of one kind or another every year since first playing for the Under-19s at the age of 17. This will be Davies’s first full England tour and he must expect to spend it playing understudy to Matt Prior, even though the Surrey wicketkeeper has set his sights on his friend’s Test place. He spoke to the Sunday Times.

He will be required to be a senior professional at Surrey, a club going through a rebuilding process, where young players will be looking to him for guidance. “When I first played for Worcestershire it was quite hard coming into a professional team full of adults. It was just an honour to be on the field. I’m more vocal now but at Surrey the young bowlers will be looking to me for advice. That will be good. I was pretty comfortable at Worcester. This will be a challenge.”