Craig Overton - off to Sri Lanka. Photo: www.ppauk.com

By RICHARD WALSH

SOMERSET’S Craig Overton flies out to Columbo tomorrow with the England Lions squads to play in both the two four-day matches and the five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka A.

The 22-year-old all-rounder is just itching to get going and said: ‘It’ll be a long trip but also a good one and it’ll be against some really good opposition.  

‘A lot of their players will have played for Sri Lanka so it’s going to be tough but good fun.’

The former Somerset Academy graduate who hails from north Devon added: ‘It’s great to be in both the one-day and four-day squads 

‘The first few weeks is going to be all about the red ball, so I’ve been getting prepared for that in Taunton.

‘Hopefully I can do well in that and then take some good form in to the white ball stuff.’  

Regarding his Somerset team mate Jack Leach who is also part of the Lions, Overton said: ‘It’ll be great to have Leachy with us.  

‘It was a tough winter for him but he’s handled it brilliantly.  He can crack on and concentrate on cricket.’

 Looking ahead to the tour Overton said: ‘It will be good to get out on the grass again.

‘I had a bit of that in Dubai and I can’t wait to get out there.  There’s no substitute for bowling on grass.  

‘Bowling indoors is completely different so it’s really nice to be able to go outside and get used to bowling on grass again.  

Overton hit his maiden first class century in 2016, proving he very much an all-rounder.

‘It was great to get a hundred last year and I want to get a few more,’ he said.

‘It was a big relief to get that hundred.  I’d been really close a couple of times so it was good to finally get there.’

What is the Somerset all-rounder hoping to achieve during the tour?

‘Hopefully I’ll be selected for the four-day games. If that happens and I do well in those then we’ll see what happens with the one-dayers,’ he said.

‘I’m not looking too far in to the future.  I’m concentrating on what I’m doing now in order to perform the best I can.’

The Lions begin their tour with a three-day warm up match on February 12, followed by two four-day matches against Sri Lanka A beginning on February 17 and 24th.

The five-match one-day series will begin on March 2