Sam Billings has backed himself to rise to the challenges ahead as he bids to secure his place in England’s limited overs side.

On Tuesday, the 24-year-old was named in the England One-Day and T20 squads for November’s trip to the UAE to take on Pakistan.

The Kent wicketkeeper-batsman keeps his place in the 15-man party despite seeing the field just once in the white-ball series with Australia.

Billings scored 90 runs in four ODIs against New Zealand in June, including 41 from 30 balls at Durham, then cracked 21 in the T20 against the Kiwis at Old Trafford later that month.

However, despite keeping his place in the squad for the past month’s T20 and ODI series against Australia, Billings’ involvement was limited to scoring two in the T20 win at Cardiff on August 31, with him left on the sidelines for the subsequent five one-dayers, which England lost 3-2.

Billings said: “It was good to be a part of the squad, although it was a disappointing end to the series at Old Trafford.

“I was happy with how I went in the New Zealand series and not to get an opportunity this time (against Australia) was a bit of a shame.

“But you can see the thinking behind it, in terms of needing the sixth bowler without Joe Root there. It was totally understandable.

“It’s nice to be in the mix for the UAE and hopefully I’ll get an opportunity there.”

He added: “You have to keep working hard, keep your head down and when you get the opportunity, be ready to grasp it.

“A massive positive of being consistently around the environment is you do learn things, not only from the opposition and about yourself but also from your team-mates.
“Just having two weeks in that dressing room, you learn a lot.

“Even when you’re not playing, you’re still practicing with and against the best, so you still feel your game is constantly improving.”

A year ago Billings was chosen to visit Sri Lanka with the England Performance Programme before being summoned to South Africa on England Lions duty in January and then being drafted into the senior programme after the ICC World Cup.

He admitted: “The last 12 months have been hectic. You lose all scale of time. It goes out of the window but it’s been brilliant.”

England will play four ODIs and three T20Is against Pakistan with the first one-day warm-up match in Abu Dhabi on November 8 and T20 action beginning against a UAE XI on November 23.