The 19 year-old from Bolton is a batsman in the mould of Cook, although right-handed, with a good defence and patient mindset that mark him out as unusual in this era of Twenty20 attacking batsmanship. He has scored 1,000 runs in his first full championship season, becoming the youngest Lancashire player to reach the milestone.

He scored two hundreds in the Roses match against the best attack in county cricket this month and averages more than 50 in first-class cricket after 17 matches.

Hameed, like Joe Root before him and Cook, has been picked out as a potential Test player at an early age and after trying eight different partners England feel it is time to choose a younger batsman to try to forge a successful partnership with the England captain.