Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis is heading to Australia with the England Lions next month.
Matthew Revis has got “a massive ceiling” believes head coach Anthony McGrath after the all-rounder earned an England Lions call-up yesterday.
Revis, 23-years-old, will tour Australia with the England Lions this winter.
Yorkshire’s members’ player-of-the-year will be part of an 18-man touring party which, at times, shadows the main Ashes touring party Down Under.
After a number of development camps at Loughborough through October, the Lions squad, also including former Yorkshire fast bowler Matthew Fisher, will travel to Australia in early November.
They face an England senior XI in a three-day game at Lilac Hill in Perth, the only Ashes warm-up match ahead of the first Test in the same city, starting on November 21.
The Lions, coached by Andrew Flintoff, will round off their tour with a four-day match against Australia A at Allan Border Field in Brisbane between December 5-8.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Anthony McGrath believes Matthew Revis can go right to the top.
This is Revis’s first involvement with the Lions and continues to impress Flintoff, who drafted him into his Northern Superchargers squad for the latter stages of the Hundred in late August.
Revis enjoyed a superb middle phase of the summer, highlighted by three successive centuries in the Rothesay County Championship.
He hit 93 in the late-June draw with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge before posting a stunning 150 in the win over Essex at York and 110 not out and a career best 152 not out in subsequent Scarborough draws against Surrey and Sussex.
Revis topped Yorkshire’s batting averages in Championship cricket – 63.83 – having totalled 766 runs in his 11 appearances.
Of the Burley-in-Wharfedale product, McGrath said: “The whole staff are delighted that he’s been recognised with a Lions call. Very proud.
“And he’s got a massive ceiling. He can get to anywhere he wants to be.
Picture by John Clifton/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis scored three successive mid-season centuries in the Rothesay County Championship.
“He’s done it all himself.
“To come off a winter with a bad back – a stress fracture – and having to be on limited overs and limited training, the way Mick (Lewis, bowling coach) and the medical department have managed him,
“You could see he was frustrated at times because, as a cricketer, when you’ve missed so much you want to play.
“But I think that allowed him to really focus on his batting as well, and we said to him back in the winter, ‘We want you to play as much cricket as you can, but you’re going to have to work with us because you can’t play every game’.
“Once he got his head around that, you could see his confidence growing through the year.
“He’s a big man, but we also challenged him on his body language of being really aggressive and be on the front foot when you’re out there – whether that’s when you’ve got the ball in hand or when you bat.
Picture by Michael Steele/Getty Images. Andrew Flintoff, England Lions head coach.
“That innings at York was the catalyst, really.
“He got a 90-odd the week before at Trent Bridge.
“But, winning us that game against Essex, from that point he really grew and grew.
“He’s been so, so consistent.”
