SWINDON’S Craig Miles will continue to work hard to keep himself in the picture for an England call-up in the future.

The Purton-born pace bowler plies his trade with County Championship Division Two side Gloucestershire, where he has become a pivotal member of their bowling attack.

Miles has been included in the last two England Performance Programme set-ups, the most recent coming last winter, when he travelled to South Africa with the bowling team before heading to Dubai to meet up with the rest of the group, which included the England Lions squad.

This month saw fellow Wiltshire cricketer Liam Dawson, who was part of the Lions squad in Dubai, make his international debut for England in a T20 win over Sri Lanka at the Ageas Bowl, taking three wickets in the process.

Miles, 19, also has ambitions of playing for his country one day and knows that if he keeps performing well for his county and earning selection for the development teams then it will only be a matter of time before he gets his chance.

“This season, I missed a few games early on but I have got back into it and played several four-day games and a few of the one-day games,’’ said Miles, who took a hat-trick during Gloucestershire’s County Championship win over Second Division leaders Essex earlier this month.

“They have gone ok and I have taken a few wickets but there are still some areas to work on as the season progresses and as the career progresses, but at the moment, I am pretty happy.

“It was good to be around the EPP set-up, which obviously feeds into the England Lions, which is the next step for me; to get into a full Lions tour.

“It was a great experience in South Africa and Dubai to bowl on a different surface and learn new skills and I think it has put me in a better place to further my career should I get the chance again to go and play on those type of wickets.

“If you can get yourself in and around that set-up, I think England are looking to give everybody as much opportunity as they can and they are willing to throw guys in.

“If you can put some performances in at county cricket level and get into that set-up, then you are not that far away from getting full honours.’’

He added: “If I am playing as much cricket as I can and continue taking wickets, then it puts myself in a good place to get picked or called up into those squads and get the chance of playing for England.”