Adam Lyth England debut: What you need to know about Alastair Cook's new opening partner
The left-hander propelled Yorkshire to the County Championship last season
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Your support makes all the difference.Until last season Adam Lyth had always been promising domestic player, but no more - an attacking, attractive opening batsman, whose potential should have earned him an England call-up, but who had been plagued by inconsistency.
All of that changed in Yorkshire's 2014 County Championship-winning season, when the 27-year-old plundered 1,489 runs at an average of 67.68, including six centuries.
Just as impressive was the Whitby-born left-hander's ability to score huge hundreds. He followed 230 against Northants, sharing in a mammoth opening stand of 375 with promising opening parter Alex Lees, with 251 to win the Roses match against Lancashire by an innings.
Lyth's exploits won him the PCA player of the year award, Lees taking young player of the year, and earned him a place on England's recent tour of the West Indies. However, he endured a frustrating time in the Caribbean, scoring 23 in his sole innings against a St Kitts XI as England stuck with Jonathan Trott during the Test series.
Now, with Trott retired from international cricket after a disappointing comeback, Lyth will finally get his chance to inject some of his trademark dynamism into an English top-order often accused of being one-paced.
He has been an eye-catching strokemaker since making his county debut at the age of 18. He earned the Yorkshire young player of the year award in 2008 after making his mark with 645 County Championship runs, and was named in an England development squad in 2009.
However, his breakout year at county level came in 2010: the first player in the country to reach 1,000 First Class runs, Lyth ended with 1,509 at 52.03. Talk of those performances earning him an England call-up came to nothing, and Lyth failed to kick on, losing his Yorkshire place the following season.
An unbeaten 248 against Leicestershire in 2012 turned the opener's fortunes around, and he was an ever-present in 2013 before propelling the White Rose to a 31st Championship last year.
Now, he becomes Alastair Cook's ninth opening partner for England, and sixth since Andrew Strauss's retirement in 2012. Lyth has a real opportunity to make an unsettled berth his own and, after a long road to his call up, certainly deserves that chance.
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