Head coach Lehmann backing in-form opener Vasconcelos for England call
"He plays fast bowling as good as I have seen."
Northants head coach Darren Lehmann is backing opening batter Ricardo Vasconcelos for an England international call this winter.
The Australian believes the left-hander, who has scored six first-class centuries this season and reached 1,000 runs in a campaign for the first time, has what it takes to play at the highest level.
Lehmann has played alongside and also coached some of the greats of the game with bat and ball, and he rates Vasconcelos as being up there with the best of them when it comes to facing fast bowling.
England's current Test opening pair are former Northants men and fellow left-handers Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay, but Lehmann believes Vasconcelos has to be 'starting to knock on the door' for selection.
And as well as his successes in first-class cricket, Vasconcelos has proven white-ball pedigree as well, highlighted by his match-winning innings of 88 from just 59 balls in the Steelbacks' Vitality Blast final win over Hampshire Hawks in July.
This winter, England travel to Pakistan and Australia for white ball series, before going to South Africa for Test and white ball series' in December and January.
There is then a one-off 150th anniversary Test against Australia in Melbourne in March, and Lehmann would love to see South African-born Vasconcelos get some reward for his efforts in 2026.
The 28-year-old scored his sixth ton of the red ball summer in last week's draw with Derbyshire, and Lehmann said: "Vasco was brilliant again.
"That's six hundreds for the year now and 1,000 runs.
"He has been exceptional and must be starting to knock on the door (for England) you would hope.
"There is not a finer player of fast bowling that I have seen.
"I have seen him score the best 100 against a quality bowling attack up at Durham in Ben Stokes, Matthew Potts and Kasey Aldridge.
"They had a quality attack, with Callum Parkinson as well, and Vasco has just been in great form for us all year.
"That's has been the catalyst to us getting so many bonus points, our openers have done a good job."
A left-hander himself, Lehmann hit five centuries and five half-centuries in Tests at an average of 44.95 for Australia.
In his first-class career he racked up close to 26,000 runs at 57.83, scoring a remarkable 82 hundreds and 111 half-centuries.
Lehmann has also coached Australia to Ashes and 50-over World Cup glory, and asked what it is he sees in Vasconcelos that sets him apart from other players, he said: "He has time, and he plays fast bowling as good as I have seen.
"I know there are incumbents in the Test side and Ben Duckett is obviously a good player, and so is Emilio Gay.
"I can't comment on those guys, Duckett has done really well and Emilio has some good knocks, but Vasco has a special knack of playing fast bowling.
"You only have to look at his 100 at Chester-Le-Street (in June) and look at the highlights when they were bowling fast, and they were bowling fast, and see the way he played them.
"I said 'wow, there's an international player'.
"He has got himself fitter and probably needs to get a little bit fitter still, but he knows that and he has worked hard.
"When you have time as a player against fast bowling, it is special.
"When I played against fast bowling, I was s****ing myself!
"He has more time than I ever had, and that is the sign of a good player."
Vasconcelos currently has 1,064 runs to his name for the season at an average 48.36.
That sees him top of the division two run-scoring charts, and second overall in the country behind Nottinghamshire's Joe Clarke, who has racked up 1,280.
He will be looking to add to that tally when he plays for Northants in their final game of the season against Middlesex at Lord's on Thursday.