Exciting talent Will Jacks is determined to take advantage of County Champions Surrey’s desire to regenerate from within.

The 20-year-old showed off his extravagant ability for hitting the ball out of the ground with a flamboyant 25-ball century in a 10-over match against Lancashire in Dubai when the sides met last month, hitting 11 sixes in a remarkable barrage which included six in one Stephen Parry over.

His promise has already been noted by the England selectors. They drafted him into the Lions side for a tour of India during the winter, being rewarded by a half-century.

Jacks is one of a crop of exciting youngsters – including Ollie Pope and Sam Curran, who are already Test players, plus Ryan Patel and Amar Virdi among others – who helped Surrey to their first Specsavers County Championship title since 2002 last summer, winning it with two matches to spare.

“My biggest challenge is to get into our four-day side,” admitted Jacks, who saw 18-year-old Jamie Smith hit a century on his first-class debut against MCC in Dubai to increase competition further. “It’s our strongest suit and it’s the area of the game where I’ve got most work to do but I felt I learned with every game last season.”

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Ironically, his most important contribution to the Championship title came as a substitute, grabbing a remarkable high catch at short-leg to earn Surrey a pulsating victory over Lancashire by six runs.

Director of cricket Alec Stewart’s ambition to produce players for both county and country has been rewarded by six of England’s last 11 debutants coming from the Surrey staff and he explained: “Where we have to recruit from elsewhere we will but having a home-made core to the side brings so many benefits.”

When Stewart took charge full-time in 2014, he set out an ambitious agenda to put Surrey back on top, long-term planning always in danger of being blown off course by the sidewinds of international calls, England central contracts and T20 franchise leagues like the IPL.

But the supply of talent nurtured by Academy Director Gareth Townsend and his team has enabled Stewart and head coach Michael Di Venuto to overcome regular England calls last year, Stewart adding: “We resolved to give young players opportunities and benefit from that experience. Sometimes an older player presents a more obvious case for a selection but an 18 to 20-year-old will develop more quickly than a 28 to 30-year-old and soon overtake him.”

Surrey are entertaining Durham MCCU at the Kia Oval this week for three days from Thursday, their opening opponents being – predecessors as champions and the only side to beat them last year – at home on April 11-14.