Laurie Evans lifts lid on life as a T20 star and the dilemmas facing England hopefuls

Surrey star Laurie Evans is one of the best uncapped T20 batters in England, having struck a total of 4,950 runs in 195 innings.

In fact, only two other players who have not played international cricket have scored more than him - Cameron Delport and Rikki Wessels. Remarkably, though, Evans did not become a regular on the T20 franchise circuit until after his 30th birthday.

He had always been a talented white-ball batter, having been named player of the match in the final of the 2014 T20 Blast after his half-century helped Warwickshire win the tournament, but it took a move to Sussex and the backing of captain Luke Wright to truly unlock Evans' full potential.

He told Mirror Sport : "I was at Warwickshire batting in the middle order at five or six and a good year for me would be finishing off the innings in four games - either win a game or get us to an above-par score.

"But ultimately I knew that if I wanted to move my game forward and play some franchise cricket I would have to get more of an opportunity up the order, so I moved to Sussex where Luke Wright decided to bat me at number three.

"That year [2018] I topped the run scoring in the Blast and from there I started to pick up franchise opportunities. Sometimes you just need to give yourself more of an opportunity to do well, that's what I did moving to Sussex and the rest has been history. Ever since I've found myself very busy in the winter months!"

Evans has now played in franchise competitions all over the world, including the Caribbean Premier League, the Big Bash, the Pakistan Super League and the short-lived Afghanistan Premier League. And he believes it is important that young English players take advantage of opportunities to play abroad and improve