Haseeb Hameed will always have aspirations of resuming his England career, but he is ignoring outside distractions for now as he prepares to captain Nottinghamshire this season.
Already Nottinghamshire's 50-over skipper, Hameed was named as Steven Mullaney's successor in the off-season for their Vitality County Championship campaign, which begins when they visit Essex on Friday.
While he believes he has time on his side to add to his 10 Test caps, the last of which came two years ago, the 27-year-old is concentrating all his energies on Nottinghamshire's Division One campaign.
“The focus for me is Notts but that doesn’t mean I’ve not got ambitions to play for England again. As long as I’m playing, I’ll never lose the ambition to play for England.”
Hameed opened the batting for England for the first time at the age of 19 and earned rave reviews for his measured approach and tight technique in three Tests in India, but injuries and a drastic drop in form prompted a county switch in 2020 when he left Lancashire for Nottinghamshire, breathing new life into his career.
He played seven more Tests between August 2021 and January 2022, but while there were some promising performances against India at home, he was part of the collateral damage after a humiliating 2021-22 Ashes.