Having bowled Sri Lanka out for 139 on day one of the touring side’s warm-up game at Worcester, England Lions were all out for 324 at stumps on day two. Telegraph Sport was there to assess how the most prominent among the promising fared against a Test side.  

Hamza Shaikh

The first player to make his first-class debut when representing England Lions celebrated his feat by scoring 91 off 204 balls. Only just turned 18, from Birmingham, Hamza Shaikh’s outstanding feature was his calm and patient defence while steering the Lions towards a first innings lead of 185 over the Sri Lankans in their sole warm-up game before the first Test against England starts on Wednesday at Old Trafford.

But Hamza can play strokes as well, which has attracted the attention of England’s senior management. Not out 21 overnight, Hamza batted through the morning to reach 54 before accelerating and playing two sumptuous strokes: the first was to deep midwicket for three, with a vertical bat, off a short-of-a-length ball, and the second an on-drive that could have been Joe Root on song. Such was Hamza’s balance that he followed the ball down the pitch.

All the while Hamza was keeping Prabath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner, at bay. Taller and brisker than his eminent predecessor Rangana Herath, Jayasuriya targeted the batsman’s pads – and the Lions captain Lyndon James fell leg-before by playing round his front pad, but Hamza was having none of that, and either defended straight or clipped his singles.

An older batsman, sensing another piece of history as the first to score a century for the Lions on his first-class debut, would have accelerated as the second new ball approached. Hamza needed three runs an over to reach it but had only got so far as 91 when the second ball was taken, and he tried to work it to leg, and sent up a skyer off the leading edge which Kasun Rajitha accepted. Hamza was patted on the back by one or two of the tourists as he tore himself from the crease. He has to be content with the century he made for England Under-19s v Sri Lanka Under-19s at Cheltenham when he was captain.