Spinner Adam Riley is playing down talk of being selected for England despite a great few months for Kent.

The 22 year old from Sidcup has had a stunning start to the season, taking 24 County Championship wickets whilst keeping England spinner James Tredwell out of the side.

Now a regular for Kent in all formats of the game, Riley is being tipped by many former England players as being the next hot prospect to go on and earn England honours with the Test match spinner’s place still very much up for grabs after Graeme Swann retired.

Despite having a great start to the 2014 campaign, Riley is playing down the talk of going on to play for England and wants to concentrate on securing a place in the Kent side on a regular basis:

“I guess it’s nice to be spoken about in that respect, I don’t read into it too much and I’ve said it before, I want to secure my place in the Kent side first and I’ve only played a handful of games.”

“I’ve had a good start, but you don’t get anywhere on good starts, you’ve got to sustain it and get a performance over a period of time.”

“It’s nice to be spoken about in that bracket, but I’m not getting too carried away.”

Having kept James Tredwell out of the Kent side in recent weeks, Riley has taken over the mantle of Kent’s main spinner for the time being with the England man having to join Sussex on loan to get four day cricket.

The pair will join forces once again as Sussex Sharks come to Canterbury on Friday night for the latest Natwest T20 Blast game and Riley believes it is good for Kent that they have two great spinning options:

“We have a great relationship and it’s great to have competition for places. Tred is going to push me to get back into the four day side and that will get the best out of me.”

“We might also get to the stage where we can have the both of us in the same Championship side. Treddy is a massive asset for me as he’s got so much knowledge and it would be foolish of me not to tap into that knowledge he’s got.”

“With Min Patel, I have got two guys I can lean on for advice and develop going forward.”

Riley and Tredwell are both expected to play in Friday night’s game at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence against Sussex Sharks with play to start at 7pm.

Kent’s 14 man squad: Rob Key (c), Adam Ball, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Sam Billings (w), Alex Blake, Doug Bollinger, Mitch Claydon, Fabian Cowdrey, David Griffiths, Charlie Hartley, Sam Northeast, Adam Riley, Darren Stevens, James Tredwell.

Picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com