?Dan Lawrence: Born into cricket, growing with each passing day

The England squad possesses as many as nine players who have played first-class cricket. As much as it is a reflection on their advantage at the World Cup, it is also a statement on the youth structure in England, where the focus has shifted to empowering youngsters of late.

“It helps having so many people playing first-class cricket because you learn more from older, senior players and you just sort of know more about the game when you’re coming into this tournament,” says Lawrence. “It adds a certain level of maturity to how we’re going to go about it. Everyone sort of has a good idea of what everyone is going to do and how they are going to do it. Obviously we’re not perfect, but hopefully we’re closer than few of the other lads from other teams.”

In fact, England’s strategy to embrace youth since its poor outing at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has served as extra motivation to Lawrence, and indeed, the rest of the squad. “Hopefully, if you do well here and you can score a lot of runs on TV and in front of the right people, it can only sort of keep making you go up and up the steps,” he says. “The England one-day team, at the moment, is going up and up. They are an exciting young team and we’re actually getting to the right sort of time – everyone is playing. The game’s changed from getting 250 for a par score – it’s now 350. The way the game’s being played now, myself and a lot of the other lads in the team can fit well into the system. It’s quite an exciting time for English cricket.

“It’s good how they’re giving opportunities to young players. And it sort of gives all of us a bit of a kick up the backside to get us to keep performing and get ourselves to that level.”

The occasional kick up the backside is good. Lawrence has exhibited positive signs so far. The trick is to fulfill the potential. If kicks up the backside can ensure he does that, then so be it.