JOE Clarke intends to use his winter spell with the England Lions to hone his wicket-keeping skills as he set his sights on pushing Ben Cox for a place behind the stumps at New Road next summer.

The Worcestershire batsman is currently part of a Lions training camp in Dubai before games next month against UAE and Afghanistan after which a squad will be chosen for a tour of Sri Lanka in February-March.

Clarke scored 1,200 Championship runs in his first full season of first team cricket for the County with five centuries.

But the 20-year-old has made it clear he wants to improve his wicket-keeping as well as his batting skills with the Lions.

He said: "Andy Flower is leading the coaching team again and, as a batsman, I do most of my work with him and Graham Thorpe and also Julian Wood, who arrived this week to do some work on power-hitting as he did last winter.

"I’m also determined to make the most of the chance to focus on my wicketkeeping.

"I spoke to Bruce French (England wicket-keeping coach) before we came out and said to him 'I want to work as hard on my ‘keeping as my batting' so I can get back to Worcester next summer and really be pushing for a keeping spot.

"I know Ben Foakes is here as the number one wicketkeeper, but I’m going to work as hard as I can so that, if something happens to Ben, I’d be ready to step in."