Northeast England call will come

Matt Walker says there is no doubt Sam Northeast is good enough to play for England and he just needs to carry on doing what he’s doing to achieve a call-up. The 27-year-old Kent skipper is continually being linked with the national side after a couple of highly productive campaigns and last month was due to lead the MCC against Middlesex in the County Champion match in Abu Dhabi before a hamstring injury forced him out. Kent head coach Walker described Northeast’s unbeaten 173 against Sussex at Hove as ‘absolutely fantastic’ and says it is only a matter of time before England come calling. He said: “It’s a stupid question to ask me because of course I do (think he can play for England). I’ve been watching him for three years now day-in day-out and I see what he does in the middle. “He’s a fantastic cricketer, a fantastic batsman and I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t play him. “He’s scored runs against a lot of good attacks over the past three years.”

Walker says one of Northeast’s great strengths is that he can adapt to whatever format of the game he’s playing and he believes the Ashford-born player has the right mindset – the proof being the fact he hasn’t allowed the Kent captaincy to affect his form.

He added: “First of all, Sam leads from the front, that’s one of the great things that has happened since he became captain. He’s not lost his form.

“He would admit as a captain when you’re performing as well, it adds a certain something to the team.

“He leads by his example and how he prepares for the game and what you see out there is a product of a lot of hard work.

“He trains harder than anybody, he hits more balls than anybody else, he makes sure everything’s right before he goes out in the middle and often the result is pretty decent.”

He added: “Sam will adapt to Test cricket pretty quickly. He’s got the game for it but the great thing about him and all this is that he’s relaxed about it.

“He wants to play for England, of course he does but he does not get caught up in that and let it affect him.

“He just carries on and scores runs and hopefully he’ll get a shot at some stage.

“There are a lot of good players in his position knocking on the door, doing well or have done well but when you work with a player and see what he does and how hard he works, you hope somebody else sees that as well and gives him an opportunity.”