Kent fast bowler Matt Coles has been rewarded for his fine start to the season with inclusion in the England Lions squad for a four-day game against the West Indies.

The 21-year-old has played an important part in Kent’s unbeaten start to the LV= County Championship with 21 wickets in the opening four games, and weighing in with a maiden hundred against Yorkshire at Headingley.

Coles (pictured) is yet to be capped at England Lions level, although he was included in the squad for the winter tour of Sri Lanka after having spent much of the off-season with the Potential England Performance Programme in Loughborough and Chennai.

He is in the squad for the game against the touring West Indies at Northamptonshire’s County Ground, which starts on Thursday, May 10.

Coles said: "It is a tremendous honour to be selected for the Lions squad. I know I have a lot of hard work to do, but I am looking forward to being involved fully in the set up after having had some experience in the winter. My first priority at the moment is to concentrate on the job I have to do in the current game."

National Selector, Geoff Miller, said: "West Indies will no doubt be challenging opposition and this fixture will present an opportunity for players to show that they are capable of taking the next step and representing England at Test level in the future."

England Lions squad: James Taylor (Nottinghamshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jack Brooks (Northamptonshire), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Matt Coles (Kent), Nick Compton (Somerset), Jade Dernbach (Surrey), Simon Kerrigan (Lancashire), Stuart Meaker (Surrey), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham).