Banstead Cricket Club's Tom Lancefield says a winter in Sri Lanka is about preparing him for life in the Surrey first eleven.

The 20-year-old made his Lions first-class debut last summer and ended the season with a seven LV= County Championship Division Two appearances and 323 runs to his name.

Lancefield, who also found time for seven appearance for Banstead in the Surrey Championship last year, jetted off to Colombo to play for Tamil Union CC last week.

He recently signed his first professional contract at the Oval and insists the trip to Asia is geared towards building on his break through season under skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown.

“I’m massively excited. I’ve been lucky enough to play in Australia, South Africa and the West Indies, but this is something totally different,” he said.

“There is a chance I could play some list A and first class cricket and it would be brilliant if I could get that chance.

“I want to get there and hit the ground running, so I can really build some momentum ahead of the season here and achieve my goals.”

Lancefield will be turning out for record-breaking Test spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s former club and the youngster is in no doubt over what he hopes to get out of his stay.

“It is a chance to learn to cope in different conditions and it will also be a huge life experience,” he added.

“A big part of my game I need to work on is playing against spin and there will be a lot of spinners out there.

“People who have been successful out there have played spin well. If I can score runs out there, hopefully I can score runs here.”

Where Surrey’s Lions are roaring this winter

Chris Tremlett, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Davies - Ashes Tour to Australia.

Matt Dunn - England U19 tour to Sri Lanka.

Jade Dernbach - England Lions tour to the West Indies.

Gary Wilson - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with Ireland’s preliminary World Cup squad.

Matt Spriegel and Chris Schofield - Midland Guildford CC and club cricket in Perth.

Rory Hamilton-Brown - Footscray Edgewater CC, Melbourne.

Tom Linley and Arun Harinath - Old Essendon Grammarians CC, Melbourne.

Stuart Meaker - ECB's Harold Larwood fast bowling scholarship in Brisbane.

Chris Jordan - club cricket in Barbados.

Tom Lancefield - Tamil Union CC, Sri Lanka.