Durham wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson is ready to take his chance in a potential “shootout” for the England gloves this summer.

With Ben Foakes yet to match imperious glovework with consistent runs and Jonny Bairstow potentially at a career crossroads following a lean tour of India, there are a number of contenders eager to push to the front of the queue.

Foakes’ Surrey team-mate Jamie Smith has no shortage of admirers, Somerset’s James Rew enjoyed a superb breakout season in 2023 and white-ball regular Phil Salt is keen to make the move across formats.

But there is also a compelling candidate at Chester-le-Street. Robinson was outstanding as Durham stormed to the Division Two title last season, scoring three centuries and 931 runs at a strike-rate of 88.66 to mark himself out as a ‘Bazball’ natural. In the field he contributed 37 catches and 10 stumpings.

That won him a place on England Lions’ winter series against India A and the 25-year-old is not shying away from the possibility of a swift promotion ahead of Durham’s top-flight return against Hampshire on Friday.

“You see articles all the time, people putting stuff online, and it sounds like the media think there’s going to be changes with England,” he told the PA news agency.

“Whether it’s me or someone else, who knows, but that’s an exciting place to be at the start of the season. It’s a bit of a shootout in a way.

“Things like the Lions call-up show you you’re not that far away. It might just be about who starts the best. That’s not me putting pressure on myself but it is an exciting opportunity to really put your name in the hat if something was to happen and changes are to be made.

“Coaches talk about having healthy competition all the time and that’s what drives people onwards, knowing someone is on your tail. I’m used to that, before I was here I was at Kent and I had Jordan Cox and Sam Billings around me so I’ve always had that feeling of trying to force my way in.”

Robinson is also pleased to be coming through at a time when England’s attacking philosophy, led by head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, chimes with his own instincts.

“That’s the way I’ve always played, I like to score runs and hit boundaries,” he said.

“I remember opening the batting for Kent against Northamptonshire once and getting 100 off 100 balls. Everyone was asking, ‘Are you in a rush to get somewhere?’.

“It’s a breath of fresh air for me that it’s becoming more the norm to go about things that way. I score quickly and hit the ball in areas that some players don’t. Batters are there to score runs, it doesn’t matter how many you face.”

Surrey wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith will relish the chance to take on Nathan Lyon in Friday’s season opener at Lancashire but is relaxed about his future international prospects.

Smith made his England bow in September when he appeared in two ODIs against Ireland after an excellent domestic campaign.

The 23-year-old has long been earmarked as a future international since he scored a century on his first-class debut in 2019 against an MCC attack which included Stuart Broad. Last year he turned potential into results.

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A tally of 736 red-ball runs helped Surrey to Vitality County Championship success and Smith is excited to begin the new campaign against a high-quality Lancashire line-up that should include Aussie spinner Lyon.

“Yeah, I think you have to (relish it) and with aspirations of playing Test cricket, you will come up against world class players anyway,” Smith told the PA news agency.

“There is always a little bit of analysis that goes into it and he’s played a lot. A few guys have played against him in the changing room, so I guess it is getting those experiences as well.

“We know he is a fantastic player. No one gets that many Test wickets (530) without being a fantastic player so you respect what he has done, but also play him like anyone else on the day.”

After Smith started the 2022 season with a maiden double ton at Gloucestershire but failed to back it up, he was determined to bring a level of consistency to his game last year.

What followed was two hundreds, which included a sensational 114 off 77 balls to help Surrey chase 501 at Kent, four fifties and an average of 40.88 with a 65.3 strike rate.

His success was not just limited to red-ball cricket either, with contributions with both the bat and gloves able to fire Surrey to Vitality Blast finals’ day and he also starred for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred.

It earned Smith two England white-ball caps in September and his name is in the mix for a Test shot should Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes be discarded.

Smith added: “That was important to put a season together instead of a few scores. For me what was a big turning point was staying consistent with my approach.

“There are going to be low scores in there, but instead of panicking about it or changing the way you want to play, I stayed quite consistent with a positive style.

“It was obviously an incredible end to a fantastic summer and fantastic recognition to have that (England debut).

“No one can ever take it away from you that you have represented your country, no matter who it was against or in what capacity.

“It was a proud day for my family. They made a lot of sacrifices when I was growing up and still now, so it was an incredibly proud moment.

“When you get a taste of something like that, you obviously want to have it again knowing that it is probably not my time right now, with the guys they’ve got picked but if I keep chipping away and scoring runs you never know when the next one could come.

“If you are outscoring people in the County Championship or the Blast and putting in performances, winning games when it matters, scoring runs when it matters, then people will always take notice.”

Ben Foakes will not lose sleep over whether he features in England’s Test plans for this summer.

The Surrey wicketkeeper was back in the England XI for the winter tour of India and once again impressed with his skills behind the stumps, but failed to register a fifty in 10 innings during the 4-1 loss.

Foakes has been in and out of the team since his 2018 Test debut and missed last year’s Ashes after Jonny Bairstow was given keeping duties.

The wicketkeeper berth is seemingly up for grabs ahead of home series with the West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer, but Foakes, who scored 205 runs at an average of 20.5 in India, is relaxed about his position.

“I haven’t been told anything,” Foakes said.

“Obviously the more years I’ve got into my career, the more I’ve been in and out, I’ve almost come to an acceptance that it has been the case and not try to worry about it or stress too much about getting a long run or external stuff.

“India, first and foremost, I took as just trying to really enjoy it. I think the more times you get dropped, the more times you realise you don’t know how long you’ve got left or whatever it might be.

“So while you’re out there, rather than stress too much about the game or this might be my last chance, just enjoy the fact you are playing and you don’t know how long for essentially.”

The series started with a high for Foakes, who shared a crucial 112-run partnership with Ollie Pope in England’s remarkable first Test win in Hyderabad.

A number of other starts with the bat were made by the 31-year-old, but he often batted with the tail and expressed his disappointment after failing to “kick on” during his 47 in Ranchi.

Foakes added: “I felt like I kept pretty well, keeping felt good. To start off, I didn’t feel amazing with the bat and then, yeah, disappointed in a couple of innings that I didn’t kick on.

“Again, that role of batting lower down, batting with the tail, the more I do it, the more I look at it as how many times can I impact?

“Because some series you might not get an opportunity to go big, big for example, so it is very crucial when you do get a chance to try and really kick on, which I was disappointed in the fourth Test where I could have kicked on and didn’t.

“(I’m) still evolving and trying to learn with the tail and how to manage those sort of situations.”

While Foakes bats at seven for England, he has gained the majority of his success for Surrey as one of their top-five batters, which has contributed towards a first-class average of 38.52.

Foakes will aim to be back in the runs next week when Surrey begin their Vitality County Championship title defence with a trip to Lancashire, but he acknowledged the uncertainty over his England place provides one dilemma.

“Every summer in the past, I’ve not known whether I will play so I’ve played every (Surrey) game,” Foakes said.

“I did look at the Test schedule and there would be the chance to play 28 Tests and Champo (games) if I did play from the start of India until the end of New Zealand, obviously depending on selection.

“If that was the case and I did play, that is quite a lot of cricket so there would be potential to have a rest, but again it depends on what they’re looking at. Whether I am likely to play or not and then reassess.”

Sir Alastair Cook and Steven Finn backed former team-mate James Anderson to keep chasing records after he claimed his 700th Test wicket during England’s series-ending loss to India at Dharamsala.

Anderson reached the milestone when he had Kuldeep Yadav caught behind by Ben Foakes at the start of day three of the fifth Test.

While England went on to be dismissed for 195 to lose by an innings and 64 runs in the final Test of the series, the plaudits rolled in for Anderson, who is the only seamer to reach the 700-wicket mark and has Shane Warne’s tally of 708 in his sights.

TNT Sports pundit Cook even joked the 41-year-old would have half an eye on the record 800-wicket haul of Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan.

Cook said: “You go to Dharamsala as a fan and see your side get drubbed but at least you can say you were there when the only seamer in Test history got to 700 wickets.

“It was a great moment and who knows when he will stop.

“I think he would like to knock Warne off and I don’t want to say he can’t get to Muralitharan!

“Jesus, 700 is a lot, a lot of effort.”

Ex-England seamer Finn hailed Anderson’s ability to adapt given the Lancashire veteran made his Test debut back in 2003.

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“My word what a player he is,” Finn added.

“He has been a remarkable player, with his ability to evolve and adapt with the times, to stay fit and bowl at the same pace now as he did eight or nine years ago.

“What a setting to do it, at the foot of the Himalayas. To get 700 wickets in 187 games is truly remarkable.”

Anderson’s captain Ben Stokes insisted the 187-Test capped bowler should serve as inspiration for aspiring seamers.

Stokes admitted: “Yeah, amazing to be on the field. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the field for some of the milestones Jimmy has got to but being there for 700 wickets as a seamer is quite phenomenal.

“I’ve said many times he is someone every young kid who wants to be a fast bowler should look up to and try to emulate everything he has done.

“He is 41 years old, he is as fit as I’ve ever seen him and I honestly just don’t know when he will stop because the desire, commitment and everything is still there. It’s great to watch.”

Zak Crawley insisted there was never any doubt “phenomenal” Joe Root would return to form for England following his unbeaten century against India.

Root came into the fourth Test having not reached 30 in the series while a couple of uncharacteristic dismissals recently led to scrutiny on whether he should tailor his methods to fit the ‘Bazball’ philosophy.

The argument has been Root does not need to alter his approach and he put his lean patch behind him with a more traditional Test innings to amass 106 not out as England went to stumps on 302 for seven.

The 33-year-old rescued England after they had slipped to 112 for five in a helter-skelter opening session on a cracked Ranchi pitch and Crawley believes the Yorkshireman is the only batter who could have dug the tourists out of the fire.

“He’s probably the only bloke in our team who could have done that knock, he’s that good and he’s stepped up when we needed him to,” Crawley said.

“He’s a phenomenal player. We fully expected him to get a good score at some point in this series. He was due, he’s the best player we’ve ever had and he played phenomenally.

“We’re so happy for him and we never doubted him. If anything we know that when he’s got a couple of low scores he’s even more likely to get the big one, and we expected that from him.

“He deserves everything he gets, he works so hard at his game and he always comes good.”

Root’s 31st Test hundred – brought up off 219 balls, the slowest century by any England batter under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum – was marked in understated fashion as he kissed the badge on his helmet and raised his bat to team-mates who were celebrating enthusiastically on the dressing-room balcony.

There was no sign of the reverse ramp he had gotten out to in Rajkot, which proved a sliding doors moment in England’s heavy defeat as they went 2-1 down in the five-match series, while conventional and reverse sweeps were rare occurrences.

Root was unbreachable in defence, judicious off front and back foot and unfurled his customary late cuts and leg glances behind square, while there was also the odd cover drive.

Crawley, though, insisted a surface offering early movement and uneven bounce throughout dictated Root’s more classical innings, rather than widespread criticism he has faced in the last few days.

“If the pitch had been truer, I reckon he would have still played those shots,” Crawley said.

“It might have just been the variable bounce which stopped him sweeping and paddling, it wasn’t really the pitch for that kind of thing; it was too inconsistent.

“In Dharamshala (which will host the fifth Test), it’s a flatter wicket, I’d fully expect him to reverse ramp one. That’s just Joe. He’s very present when he bats and doesn’t overthink too much.”

England went at 4.63 an over in the morning thanks to counter-attacking knocks from Crawley, who made a run-a-ball 42, and Jonny Bairstow’s 38 off 35 deliveries.

But the tricky surface, rather than a brain fade, was largely responsible for England’s precarious position at lunch, with Crawley bowled twice by Akash Deep, the first off a no-ball, as the India debutant bagged a three-wicket haul.

While the odd one still kept low, batting conditions improved upon the resumption as Root and Ben Foakes (47) combined to put on 113 to stabilise the tourists.

Crawley hopes England’s seamers can make similar inroads with the new ball but anticipates spin to dominate for the remainder of the match.

“I got out still fairly early but it looked like it wasn’t bouncing anywhere near as much or as quickly as earlier on against seam,” Crawley added.

“It got harder against the spin, it will continue to break up. It might be a new-ball wicket, hopefully it is when we bowl but the I think the spin’s only going to get harder.”

Tom Hartley will make his Test debut as one of three spinners as England took a major selection gamble for their series opener against India in Hyderabad.

Hartley, the Lancashire left-armer, joins the established Jack Leach and teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in an attack that suggests the tourists expect lavish turn.

Mark Wood has been picked as the only seam bowler in the side, meaning England’s record wicket-taker James Anderson sits out.

With Wood operating best in short, rapid bursts, England are ready to embrace an entirely different rhythm of cricket. Joe Root’s off-breaks are also likely to feature heavily and Stokes has even suggested he could open the bowling with the part-timer.

Ben Foakes returns as wicketkeeper, with Jonny Bairstow reverting to a specialist batting role at number five.

Surrey completed the second-highest successful run chase in County Championship history by reaching 501 to beat Kent.

Dom Sibley’s marathon, unbeaten 140 – from 415 balls and spanning 580 minutes – underpinned a sensational effort from the champions as they eclipsed their previous highest chase of 410 in 2002.

In finishing on 501 for five Surrey achieved the highest winning target in the County Championship since Middlesex chased down 502 to beat Nottinghamshire in 1925.

Ben Foakes (124) also completed a century on the final day while Jordan Clark hit the winning run shortly after tea.

Elsewhere, Sam Cook, Simon Harmer and Jamie Porter helped Essex record a 196-run victory over Somerset.

Fast bowler Cook grabbed two wickets in two deliveries with the new ball before Harmer took two more to claim match figures of eight for 178 and Porter rounded off the tail.

Somerset needed to bat out 151 overs, or reach 466 to win, but they were eventually bowled out for 269 with two sessions to spare.

Lancashire made short work of scoring the 92 runs they required to clinch a six-wicket victory against Hampshire in just over an hour’s play on day four.

An unbeaten 64 by Red Rose captain Dane Vilas steered his side to a first championship win of the season before lunch.

Joe Clarke turned his first red-ball century for 21 months into a maiden double-hundred as Nottinghamshire denied Warwickshire victory.

Thanks to Clarke’s unbeaten 229, spanning eight hours and 38 minutes, Notts clawed back a deficit of 416 on first innings after following on.

In Division Two, Worcestershire fell agonisingly short of their target of 386 in a tense draw with Sussex.

All four results were possible with two deliveries of the match remaining, before Joe Leach needed five off the final ball but a swing and a miss left the visitors stranded on 381 for eight.

Chris Wright and Callum Parkinson took four wickets apiece as Leicestershire dismissed Gloucestershire for 202.

That left the Foxes needing 221 to win and they got home for the loss of five wickets with Rehan Ahmed hitting a rapid 71 and Colin Ackermann making 78 not out.

Yorkshire celebrated a championship victory for the first time in 14 months as they knocked off 65 to beat Derbyshire by three wickets.

Shan Masood’s unbeaten 95 off 112 deliveries and a run-a-ball 41 not out from Dom Bess saw the visitors home after Dawid Malan had fallen to the first ball of the day.

Chris Cooke (134 not out) and Timm van der Gugten (52 not out) batted Glamorgan to a draw at Durham with an unbroken stand of 153.