Liam Livingstone, the newly appointed Lancashire skipper has said that he is looking forward to the New Zealand tour with anticipation as he is ready to test his mettle in red ball cricket. 

Livingstone replaces Gary Ballance, who was axed following the 4-0 defeat in Australia. Livingstone has represented England in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) when he appeared for a couple of games against South Africa in July 2017. The right-hander had a poor dose of international cricket as he accumulated only 16 runs in two innings.

"The Twenty20 was a good experience for me, but my red-ball game is totally different," he said on Thursday (January 11). "I'm a lot more assured with my red-ball game than I am in T20 cricket so I'll definitely go into the environment with a lot more confidence in my ability to perform, which will help me. It will be nice to get in and around that and hopefully show what I can do."

"Being picked for the squad is great, but I know there's a lot more work to do to earn a place in the team," said Livingstone, "That work carries on in Desert Springs and then the West Indies where hopefully I can score some runs and push my case for selection in New Zealand". 

"Obviously the England team have had a tough Ashes, everyone knows that. But I'm sure everybody will be excited going into a new series, and I know it's a very talented group of players. I'm just looking forward to getting in amongst it," he added. 

"My ultimate goal is to play Test cricket for England, and going to Australia with the Lions was the best way to give myself the best chance of doing that" concluded Livingstone.