Test hopeful Lyth outguns Cook in notable international audition
UNCAPPED opener Adam Lyth dropped a sizeable hint to the England selectors with a timely century for reigning county champions Yorkshire on day two of their clash with the MCC in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
The 27-year-old received his first international call-up last week after being named in England’s squad for next month’s three-Test tour of the West Indies, and scored 113 from 190 balls in the domestic season’s curtain-raiser at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Lyth was eventually trapped LBW by Kent off-spinner Adam Riley but had already staked his claim for inclusion in the first Test at Antigua, which starts on 13 April, especially with England skipper Alastair Cook an interested observer at first slip.
Cook, who was representing the MCC, made an uninspiring score of three on day one as he made his first-class return, having been ditched as England’s one-day captain in December. But with Cook’s position all but assured, a 15th first-class ton is likely to do Lyth’s chances of becoming the Essex man’s ninth Test opening partner no harm at all, with the recalled Jonathan Trott set to provide the greatest competition.
Trott is back in the England fold for the first time since leaving the 2013/14 Ashes tour with a stress-related illness and has performed the role once previously, against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2010.
England face two warm-up games in St Kitts the week before the first Test where both Lyth and Trott will be able to press their cases further.