Dethroned as county champions they may have been but Surrey are contributing a large contingent to England’s overseas tours this winter.

Four players – Gus Atkinson, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope and Jamie Smith – were included in the party tasked with winning back the Ashes for the first time since 2017-18, a tough task any time given England have only won five series in Australia since the Second World War.

On the last three tours alone, 13 out of 15 Tests have been lost, just two sketchy draws breaking up the tale of misery.

The quartet will soon bump into county colleagues Matthew Fisher and Tom Lawes, who are among the 18-strong England Lions squad which will form the main party’s sole opposition before the opening Ashes Test at Perth, taking them on at Lilac Hill in the Western Australian capital over three days from November 13.

Should there be injuries or if anyone makes a massive impact, they may be added on to Ben Stokes’ squad. There are three other matches before the Lions return home in early December.

Fisher, who played one Test against West Indies in 2022, joined Surrey from Yorkshire this year and finished with 31 Championship wickets, the highlight being a career-best match haul of 11 for 134 against Nottinghamshire at the Kia Oval.

Lawes finished with 11 wickets and will be hoping to avoid the injuries which have cost him large chunks of the last two seasons, suffering a rib cartilage problem when he toured with the Lions last winter.

Two others keeping their passports up to date are fast bowler Alex French and spin bowling all-rounder Ralphie Albert, who feature in the England under-19s party for a tour to West Indies next month, bidding for places in the World Cup next year.

By Richard Spiller