Bear leads England

Rory Hamilton-Brown will captain England Under-19s in two Tests and five one-day internationals against Pakistan, the world champions, next month. RHB, known as "Bear" because of his shaggy hair (which, some might say, should be changed to "Bare" after the photos he recently posted on Facebook), has played a handful of games for Surrey but not yet made the step-up to full county calibre.

Which is something you can't really say about Adil Rashid. The Yorkshire all-rounder caught the eye with a caseload of wickets at Scarborough for his county last season, shortly before playing for England Under-19 against India, for whom he took an eight-for and score a hundred in the second Test at Taunton. Since then he has continued to blossom and it was a happy coincidence that his career-best innings of 91 yesterday should have coincided with him being pulled out of the England Under-19 squad.

It was a reward rather than a punishment. The England selectors, helped by the encouragement of Martyn Moxon, Rashid's county coach, believe his development will be better served by facing Harbhajan Singh and bowling at Mark Ramprakash than by playing age-group cricket.

Of the others named in the Under-19 squad, Billy Godleman and James Harris catch the eye. Godleman looked very ordinary against India Under-19 but has blossomed with Middlesex this season, scoring 705 runs at an average of 47. Harris, with 23 wickets at an average of 20 for Glamorgan, is the youngest player to have taken ten wickets in a championship match and is clearly one to watch.