Lions line up South Africa

Nottinghamshire's Samit Patel claims playing for England is "all I have ever wanted"

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England’s reconnaissance mission ahead of the NatWest Series continues in earnest this week when the Lions meet South Africa in two warm-up matches.

The tourists impressed onlookers on these shores and beyond en route to victory in the npower Test series, but the advent of the one-day leg of the tour provides England with a chance to end the international summer on a high.

Six of England’s limited-overs squad will get an early sighting of South Africa’s one-day outfit when the Lions provide the opposition in a 50-over tour game at Grace Road tomorrow.

Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah, Samit Patel, Matt Prior, Luke Wright and Chris Tremlett feature in a 12-man Lions squad for the first of the warm-up games, having also been included in England’s party for the Twenty20 international and five one-day matches that make up the NatWest Series.

For Nottinghamshire all-rounder Patel, winning Lions and England honours would represent the final step on a career path that has wound steadily upwards over the last decade.

He has progressed through the England age-group sides to become a component in Nottinghamshire’s one-day team and establish himself as one of the most highly regarded players in the country in both forms of the game.

“I’ve made good progress at Notts and it’s been a lifelong ambition to take that forward for England,” said Patel, who has scored 688 LV County Championship runs at an average of almost 46 this season.

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve been through the England ranks with the Under-15s, 17s and 19s and the end goal has always been to play for the senior side.”

Patel is also set to figure at Derby on Saturday in the Lions’ second meeting with South Africa, who welcome Herschelle Gibbs, Albie Morkel, Justin Ontong, Vernon Philander and Johan Botha into their squad for the one-day section of the tour.

Captain Graeme Smith will play no part at Leicester as he rests his troublesome back injury, but pace bowler Dale Steyn is set to feature in one or both games after making good progress in his recovery from the fractured thumb that kept him out of the final two Tests.