Emerging Nottinghamshire bowler Luke Wood has capped a breakthrough season with being named one of six to travel to South Africa to take part in the ECB's Potential England Performance Programme (PEPP).
After Stuart Broad, Alex Hales, James Taylor, Samit Patel, Jake Ball, Tom Moores and Tom Keast were all given England call-ups, Wood becomes the eighth Nottinghamshire player to join a winter ECB squad.
Wood enjoyed an excellent 2015, which saw him not only break into Notts' four day side but go on to take 30 wickets and score a maiden LV= County Championship hundred.
Wood is joined by Sussex's George Garton & Matthew Hobden, Middlesex's Tom Helm, Derbyshire's Tom Taylor and Essex's Jamie Porter.
“All these young players are fantastic prospects and all of them have high potential. It’s important our development squads support a variety of different types of bowler so we’re particularly pleased to see two left-arm pace bowlers in this squad – George Garton and Luke Wood," said EPP Lead Fast Bowling Coach Kevin Shine.
“The players will spend the first half of the winter focussing on developing their strength and conditioning and working on technical aspects of their game at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough. They will then head out to South Africa in the New Year, which will ensure that they are bowling outside on grass pitches.
“We’re also planning to integrate our own programme with the England ODI squad’s preparations for the their series against South Africa – which will enable all these players to be part of the international environment, giving them an opportunity to practise their skills against England’s leading one-day batsmen and work with the England coaches.”
The 2015 season has seen dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.