It was fantastic to see both Jason Roy and Zafar Ansari selected by England for the one-day international in Ireland next month.
Jason proved himself one of the rising stars of the English game last summer thanks to his explosive batting and he deservedly earned a call-up to the Twenty20 side at the end of the campaign.
I expect him to go from strength to strength this summer and I believe Zafar, a left-arm spinner who opens the batting for us in the Championship, has just as much potential. Spinners have a bad reputation in England, with people always saying that we cannot produce enough talented ones.
Perhaps those critics should take a look at Zafar, who I believe is the best young slow bowler in the country. I’ve always been impressed by the way he thinks about the game. There is an awful lot of help and coaching for players today and sometimes, as a consequence of that, young cricketers do not think for themselves.
Zafar, on the other hand, knows exactly where he wants to go. He is clear about how to bowl as a modern spinner, who needs to attack and defend at the same time.
A number of spinners in England are perfectly good at doing a defensive job but perhaps not so strong when they need to take wickets. I believe Zafar is just as good at both and, at 23, he can only improve. Although he is a quiet lad, he will have no problem fitting into the England dressing room. People talk about how quickly Joe Root has adapted to the international game and Zafar is a similarly fast learner.
We had two excellent left-arm spinners, the Indians Pragyan Ojha and Murali Kartik, at Surrey in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and Zafar studied them both closely.
By the time we play Leicestershire from May 10-13, hopefully Zafar and Jason will have done well for England and will be able to help us to our first win of the summer. Octopus Investments — proud sponsor of Surrey and Birmingham T20 teams. Join the conversation @OctopusT20 to compare player stats, view one-on-one records, and discover what it takes to be a #gamechanger
