Trott plays down England hope

Batsman Jonathan Trott does not want to be sidetracked by thoughts of playing for England just yet © Getty Images

Jonathan Trott is refusing to consider his chances of England recognition despite continuing his impressive start to the season with another superb century for Warwickshire.

The 24-year-old South African batsman, who is playing county cricket because he holds a British passport, qualifies for England at the end of this year and has long been considered a prospect for future selection.

Those chances would have increased with his century for Warwickshire in the opening Liverpool Victoria County Championship match against Sussex at Hove and he followed that with an unbeaten 177 on Friday to give Warwickshire a chance of victory on the final day against Yorkshire at Edgbaston.

Trott hit a six and 20 fours in his five-hour innings and enabled Warwickshire to set Yorkshire an unlikely victory target of 500. By the close of the third day they had battled to 134 for two.

But despite the attention his performances are attracting, Trott is determined not to be side-tracked and stressed: "I don't want to think about England at the moment.

"This time last year I couldn't get a run at all after everyone had been talking about me for England and I think I put too much pressure on myself and I'm not going to do that this time.

"I'm a big Spurs fan and I'm more worried about whether they're going to finish fourth and get the final Champions League place at the moment than I am about England.

"I can't play in the Test matches or the one-day internationals coming up this summer so I'm not even going to think about it - I want to do well for Warwickshire this season and let the rest look after itself."

Trott believes his impressive start to the season is a product of his decision to play for Otago in New Zealand this winter rather than return to his birthplace in Cape Town.

During his stay in New Zealand Trott worked on his game and returned an improved player and Warwickshire are now reaping the benefit of that decision.

"I could have gone back to Cape Town and played league cricket, stayed in my own comfort zone and enjoyed the beach all winter but I wanted to do something different," he explained.

"I enjoyed my time in New Zealand because I had plenty of time to work on my game between matches. The standard of cricket is not as good as county cricket but there weren't as many matches which gave you time to work on your game.

"In England, once the season starts it's very difficult to work on your game because you're going from one match to the next and don't have any time so I think I returned a better player."