Haseeb Hameed reckons Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s attacking message has been heard loud and clear with the County Championship set to catch fire this summer.
And the 26-year-old opener is one of a number of ambitious players who are keen to show that they have the power and the skills to pay the bills at the highest level. Hameed has, of course, already had a taste of Test cricket, most recently in the doomed 21/22 Ashes campaign Down Under when he was overwhelmed by Australia’s pace attack.
Since then though he has helped steer Nottinghamshire back to Division One championship cricket and this winter produced a sparkling 145 from just 172 balls against the full England attack for the Lions in the UAE - an innings that caught the eye of the watching Stokes.
