Dom Bess - called into an England Lions squad<br>credit: http://www.ppauk.com/photo/1371575/

DEVON’S Dom Bess is in an England Lions overseas party for the first time after being named in a 17-man squad heading to Australia.

Bess and the other Lions will spend a week at the Performance Centre in Loughborough before flying to Brisbane on November 14, for a two-week camp with a red-ball focus culminating in a three-day match against a Queensland XI at the Allan Border Oval from November 27-29 – although this will not be an official England Lions fixture.

They then head west to Perth for two weeks focusing on white-ball skills during which they will play three T20 matches against a Scorchers team who will be preparing for the Big Bash.

The Lions squad for a seven-week trip to the West Indies in 2018, including three four-day matches and three 50-over fixtures, will be selected in December, along with the squads for the North-South Series which follows in Barbados in March.

In nine First Class matches for Somerset in the season just ended, Bess took 36 wickets at less than 24 runs each – including a career best seven for 117 against Essex at Chelmsford

Around his Somerset commitments, Bess managed to fit in four games for club side Exeter and three appearances in Devon’s Unicorns Trophy side.

Lions: Dom Bess (Somerset), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Paul Coughlin (Durham/Nottinghamshire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), George Garton (Sussex), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Tom Helm (Middlesex), Keaton Jennings (Durham/Lancashire), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Jamie Porter (Essex), Amar Virdi (Surrey), Tom Westley (Essex), Mark Wood (Durham).