Tom Banton ready for a big summer of cricket with Somerset and England

England player Tom Banton is relishing the prospect of a big summer of cricket as he fine-tunes his skills in Abu Dhabi ahead of the new English season.

Coming off the lockdowns and scheduling interruptions since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Banton is looking forward to a “normal” season, “lots of cricket” and the home series against India this summer.

The England and Somerset batter and Alastair Cook, the former England captain who leads Essex, both took time off from their pre-season training camps at Abu Dhabi Cricket’s facilities to attend a coaching clinic with kids at the Zayed Cricket Academy. There, Baton discussed his training and plans for the future.

“It’s pretty much back to normal. It’s been a pretty hard two seasons with the pandemic and obviously there has been some good times and bad times locked up in hotel rooms,” Banton told The National. “But it’s now been awesome, not just cricket but the whole world getting back to normal.

“I want to play as much as possible both during the domestic season and England’s international calendar. I've got to score runs and fingers crossed, the summer goes to plan.”

Banton, 23, is excited to play his part for Somerset across all domestic formats and the England home series against India, “against some of the biggest stars” in world cricket.

“Aside playing in the IPL [for Kolkata Knight Riders] I have never played against India,” he said. “Playing against India, against some of the biggest names in world cricket and to get some runs would be pretty cool.”

India are scheduled to play three T20s and as many ODIs during their tour of England in July, along with a one-off Test which will be a continuation of the series that was suspended last year with the