Three young Somerset cricketers will be leaving the cold English winter far behind them when they fly out with the England Under-19 squad for their five week tour of India today.

Tom Banton and Louie Shaw are both currently on the Somerset Academy while George Bartlett is now on a one year full time contact with the club having graduated from the academy last summer.

Banton, who is an 18-year-old wicket-keeper batsman, said: “I am really excited about the trip and have been busy making sure that all my school work is up to date before we go.

“I came in and had a session with Matt Maynard on Wednesday to make sure that I am in as good nick as possible.

"I am mainly looking forward to the white ball games where I think I am stronger but also hoping to learn a lot about how the Indians play spin whilst I am out there and developing a strong defence in red ball cricket.”

Somerset County Gazette:

Batsman George Bartlett, also 18, has been involved with the England Under-19s previously and scored a century against Sri Lanka last season.

“It’s really good to have been chosen and I am obviously really excited about it,” he said.

“India is a great place to go and hopefully being out there will help me to develop as a cricketer so I can’t think of anything better to be doing.

“I don’t think that the wickets out there will be too different from the way they were at the end of the season back here at Somerset. It will spin quite a lot but they will be good batting wickets in general.”

Bartlett added: “I get back for a few days and then I go off to Spain with the rest of the Somerset squad so I have got a busy time ahead of me.”

17-year-old Louie Shaw, a left arm spinner, said: “It all came out the blue to me and I wasn’t expecting it at all, so I am really chuffed.

“I only came onto the Academy last autumn and now I’m off to India which is all a bit crazy really and a real step up but I am really looking forward to it.”

He added: “It is going to be tough bowling out there because the Indians are brought up playing against spin so it’s going to be a challenge but I can’t wait to get out there.”

The Somerset trio will fly to Mumbai with the rest of the squad where England Under 19s play some ODI match and then they move onto Chennai for a two match Youth Test series before returning later in February.