THORNBURY’S Chris Dent hopes he can get the runs to earn an international call-up and get some big-time experience.

The Gloucestershire 26-year-old has had some decent knocks already this year during the county’s warm-up with Durham MCCU and the disastrous defeat to Kent in the first match of the Specsavers County Championship this month.

The England Lions – England’s second string international side – is a squad Dent wants to target. Even though their fixtures are limited in the future, there are some top ex-Test players in their set-up who could help the ex-England Under-19 international progress further in his career.

The Thornbury Cricket Club ace said: “I would like to get onto some (England) Lions tour because I think it gives you the chance to work with some really good coaches – your (Graham) Thorpe’s of the world (England batting coach) and people like that.

“It would be good to get some coaching with them so that it makes me a better player when I come back to Gloucestershire.

“It all boils down to whether I score the runs. If you score runs, you are going to get picked in these things. I have not quite been as consistent as I need to be and it is all down to me whether I step up and score the amount of runs I need to.”

That consistency is beginning to grow. The left-hand bat is starting with Aussie Cameron Bancroft in the opening pair these days and hit 84 against Durham’s students in the warm-up fixture and added 67 in a first innings of just 149 against Kent as Gloucestershire were thrashed 334 runs after just three days.

Dent added: “I am feeling good at the minute but I need to work on staying in some good form for long periods of time.

“It is quite hard in cricket that you can get into some bad runs of form but some of the things I have been doing over the winter will give me the best chance to keep form throughout the season.

“It is more mental than anything else. Your technique does not change from one game to the next but your mindset does. It is making sure that your head is on with each game you play.

“I think it will be just doing a job for the team. If you come up against a tough deck (pitch), it is about getting a good seventy and, if you are on a flat one, it is a big hundred and winning the game for the team.

“Every innings, you want to go out and score runs but you have to accept that is not going to happen but it is then bouncing back when you go out to bat next time.”

It will be a season of transition for Gloucestershire as the rocks they could rely on out in the middle are not around.

Former captain Michael Klinger, who was a major run-gatherer, will play just the one-day format when he turns up from Australia, while Kiwi legend Hamish Marshall has returned to his native New Zealand for good.

Dent said: “It is a bit loss losing both of them with the experience they had and the runs they scored for us but it gives some younger players the chance to step up and it means, looking into the future, those players get the chance to play earlier in their careers than they would have done and that may have a big effect on the team.

“Players like George Hankins are going to play a lot of games. I was lucky in that I was given my chance quite early when I was young and I think that is what you need sometimes, to be given the chance to give it a go.

“We have all got to step up for each other and score runs. It was handy having Michael’s runs but it gives us a chance to stand up and be counted which will be good for some of us.”

If the season turns out as busy with Gloucestershire as Dent would hope, there may be little time to spend back with his pals at Thornbury CC.

He said: “I have not been down there for a while. I will have to see if I can get down there and get a game with them sometime this year.”