Ignore Lions talk, Maynard urges young Glam opener
KIRAN Carlson has been told to keep his focus on Glamorgan after a superb opening to the season led to suggestions of an England Lions call-up.
The Glamorgan opener maintained his impressive start to the summer with a fluent 88 not out in the rainaffected County Championship draw against Yorkshire at the weekend.
Carlson has been Glamorgan’s most consistent batsman in this Championship campaign, and now has four half-centuries and two hundreds to his name already as his potential has started to be realised.
That has led to some suggesting he could figure at a higher level sooner rather than later, but Glamorgan head coach Matthew Maynard is keen to play down such thoughts yet.
“I don’t think we should get carried away,” said the former England batsman.
“Kiran has had a fantastic start to the season, he is a wonderful player, he is very positive. You can see that in his movements.
“He’s just got to concentrate on the next match and that’s Kent and try to get as many runs there.
“Things like the England Lions, selections are totally out of his hands.
“Sometimes you can get caught up in stuff like that, but it is important not to and just focus on what he can do for Glamorgan.”
Meanwhile, Glamorgan’s Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne will miss his country’s limited-overs tour of the West Indies in July because of logistical travel problems.
The 26-year-old will instead play for Glamorgan in T20 and Championship games in that period.
Labuschagne is a regular in Australia’s Test side but has also broken into the one-day XI and hoped to play international T20 as well.
“Anyone who knows Marnus understands he would give absolutely anything to play for Australia and he is deeply upset to miss out due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control,” said Australia national selector Trevor Hohns.
“We worked through numerous options in conversations with Marnus to find a workable solution but ultimately came to the conclusion it was more practical for him to remain in the UK.”