ALEX Davies sees his England Lions call up a stepping stone to full international honours.

The Lancashire wicketkeeper was this week named in Lions squad for their winter tour to Australia and the Darwen ace, who has played for his hometown club in the Lancashire League on a number of occasions this summer, is delighted to be a part of the squad.

But he hopes a Lions place is just the start of his international career.

“That’s been my goal for the last couple of years,” said Davies who this summer became the first Red Rose wicketkeeper to score 1,000 runs in a County Championship season.

“It’s another small step. I want to keep wicket for England, and I see the winter as a big opportunity to work hard on my keeping.

“During the season, the Lions is one of your goals and you’re working towards it."

Lancashire ended the campaign second in division one after beating Surrey in their final game of the season - with Davies hitting a half century.

And the 24-year-old admits it was a nervous wait between that game finishing and the squad being finalised.

“Once you walk off that pitch in the last game to the moment it gets announced, you can’t do anything," he told Lancashire's official website. "And I don’t like that feeling of not being in control.

“Throughout the season, you’ve always got another game or another innings to prove yourself and add to the tally. As soon as that game’s done, I couldn’t do anything else. From then, I tried not to think about it.

“But I’m over the moon, and the last 12 months of hard work has paid off for me.”

The Lions head to Loughborough for a two week training camp before flying to Brisbane on November 14.

They will play a three-day game against a Queensland XI before three T20 matches against Perth Scorchers.