After making his international debut in the ongoing T20I series against Pakistan, Will Jacks is hoping he can return as part of England's Test squad in December.
While Jacks has made his name an explosive white ball batter, he played a key role in Surrey's County Championship win this year as an all-rounder. Surrey coach and former England off spinner Gareth Batty backed Jacks to be the county's frontline spinner this season, picking him ahead of highly rated youngsters Amar Virdi and Dan Moriarty.
Batty also suggested Jacks could go on to emulate Moeen Ali, telling ESPNcricinfo : "Moeen, I knew from back at Worcester. You could see for all that he was a very talented batter, wow, did he bowl a beautiful stock spin ball.
"Moeen grew into, pretty quickly, the frontline spinner that could also get you a hundred. Tell me a team that doesn't want that asset. I don't say this lightly. If we are saying that we want Will to emulate Moeen Ali, then we are asking a lot of him.
"Moeen is a wonderful cricketer, worldwide there aren't many who can do what he can do. So we're asking a lot of him [Jacks], which possibly shows where I'm coming from with the perception that he's our lead spinner right now."
Batty's faith in Jacks was vindicated, with Surrey going on to win the Championship and the 23-year-old playing a crucial role with both bat and ball. He struck 648 runs at an average of 54, while also bowling 264.3 overs - the third most of any Surrey player - as he performed a holding role that allowed the seamers to take the plaudits.
With England looking for secondary spin options for the upcoming Test series in Pakistan in December and Moeen as yet undecided about whether he wants to come out of retirement for the tour, Jacks could be in line for a call-up. And the 23-year-old has been making the most of being on tour with Moeen, picking his brains about bowling off spin.
"I'm working as hard as I can on my bowling," Jacks said. "I've been chatting to Mo since I've been here and we've been talking about our similarities as bowlers, me compared to him when he was younger.
"He sees a lot of similarities in our actions - the way our arms move, all technical stuff - and it's about how I can almost… not replicate what he's done, because everyone is different, but take things from how he's gone about changing his action [and] become tighter, so that I can bowl more consistently.
"I know there's something there for me and I know if I can improve then going forward, I can make myself into that allrounder and push for spots. I know how important that is and I'm giving everything to try to make myself that."
Jacks is certainly part of England's thinking in red ball cricket, having been picked in the Lions side which beat South Africa in a warm-up match in August. "There were chats with the coaches there," he added.
"They spoke about how they liked the way I put shape on the ball and spin the ball, so they're obviously telling me to keep working and keep pushing which I am doing. The first five or six [Championship] games before the T20s, I made loads of mistakes and bowled a lot of terrible balls, but it's something that I've really had to grow.
"It's forced me to learn quickly, which has definitely helped me, and when we came back I feel like I bowled much more consistently and more maturely. I was coming in and playing instead of two guys who have done really well.
"They've got records over a few years, so I did kind of feel that pressure. At the beginning, I put too much pressure on myself: I was expecting to bowl like a real high-quality county spinner when at that stage I wasn't that."
