When Alex Lees made his England debut in March at the age of 28, it was the culmination of a long journey chasing his dream.
Lees had been widely tipped as a future England opener from a young age, having thrived at Yorkshire under head coach Jason Gillespie. He became the youngest Yorkshire player to score a double hundred in the County Championship at the age of 20 years and 95 days and was soon picked in his first England Lions squad.
He also went on to become Yorkshire's youngest-ever professional captain at the age of 22 and helped the county win back-to-back Championship titles in 2014 and 2015. However, once Gillespie left at the end of the 2016 season, Lees' career hit a roadblock and he very quickly went from being talked about as a potential England star to barely even playing for Yorkshire as his form deserted him.
"I've spoken before about the change of leadership at Yorkshire," Lees told Mirror Sport as he took part in a media net session with Durham Cricket partners, Vertu Motors. "We probably didn't quite see eye-to-eye, which was obviously correlated within my lack of form.
"I still believe, though, that whatever you do within your career is on yourself and you have full responsibility for how you play." Having gone from scoring 1,165 runs at an average of 40.17 in the 2016 title-winning season to averaging a meagre 6.25 in just four appearances in 2018, Lees made the decision to leave Yorkshire and join Durham.
And after such a disappointing end to his time at Yorkshire, it is a credit to Lees that he has not only been able to get his career back on track but also earn England honours. However, Lees also believes the "tough" times have made him a "far better batter".
He continued: "Did I need a move? Absolutely. Obviously I hadn't played very well and sometimes you get things in life that are sent to test you, but you need to reflect on it and I think that experience of playing so poorly for that period of time has actually made me a far better batter moving forward.
"The proof is in the outcome. I was playing second team cricket that last year in Yorkshire, hardly playing any first team cricket and when I did play I didn't get any runs. To go from second team cricket to playing Test cricket and feeling confident at that level is testament to Durham and also the people around you who support you.
"For my wife to uproot her whole life and to support me chasing my dream to play for England is a big sacrifice that she made. The move to Durham has been excellent, but also the people around me have given me some great support that's allowed me to play well again these past three or four years.
"What it has given me is a bit of mental robustness that I think you probably need in international cricket. I'm not saying that I'm the best, but going through some tough periods in life that you need to bounce back from I think gives you a bit of character that when you are in tough times you can draw off. I think definitely it has helped."
Vertu Motors are the Official Car Retailer for Durham Cricket.
