Jordan Cox has been included in the Kent squad to face Hampshire in their County Championship clash starting from Saturday.

The 18-year-old has helped Kent’s 2nds win the Second XI trophy this season, hitting an unbeaten 135 against Surrey and 97 against Yorkshire.

He comes into the side in the absence of Zak Crawley, who is due to make his England Lions debut against Australia A on Sunday.

Discussing Cox's chances of a call-up earlier in the week, Kent head coach Matt Walker tipped the teenager for a bright future in the first-team set-up.

Walker said: “Jordan is young, he’s in his first year.

“He’s scored a lot of runs in white-ball cricket and played some outstanding innings in the 50-over competition and in T20.

• Kent head coach Matt Walker assesses Zak Crawley's chances of an Ashes call-up

“He’s an exciting young player, he hasn’t played a huge amount of red-ball cricket. When you put a young player in the team you have to make sure of a number of things.

“You don’t want to expose him too early but at the same time you have to find out about these kids.

“If he gets his opportunity then great, if not then his time will come pretty soon.”

Having scored 612 runs across 10 second-team matches and one first-team outing against Pakistan, Cox has been called up for the England under-19s’ tri-series against India and Bangladesh in August.

Alex Blake has also been included having struck 139 off just 83 deliveries in the Second XI Trophy semi-final against Yorkshire, before hitting 110 in the final against Durham.

Kent squad: Heino Kuhn (Captain), Daniel Bell-Drummond, Alex Blake, Jordan Cox, Joe Denly, Sean Dickson, Fred Klaassen, Matt Milnes, Harry Podmore, Ollie Rayner, Ollie Robinson, Darren Stevens, Grant Stewart.

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