BARROW’S Liam Livingstone already has people around Old Trafford talking – and it is no longer about the threat of relegation for the Red Rose county.

The 22-year-old batsman is building a reputation as one of Lancashire’s big hitters.

He has made a great start to the season – and his first-class career – and helped push his side into second place in the County Championship, a point behind reigning title holders Yorkshire.

“At the beginning of the season people were talking about us being in a fight to avoid relegation, but all that does is spur us on,” he said. “We have got off to a good start and are lying second, a point behind the team whose name we try not to mention. But they have played a game more.

“That has taken a lot of pressure off us and it has put us in a very good position, especially as there have been very few definite results so far this season.”

Livingstone, who already has a first-class century to his name this season – 108 not out against Somerset following a debut 70 versus Nottinghamshire – turned to his leg-spin bowling and picked up his first wicket in the win over Hampshire this week, dismissing Tino Best.

It was a wicket that gave him a lot of satisfaction – and a pleasant feeling of revenge. It was West Indies Test player Best who had dismissed Livingstone for a duck as Lancashire amassed a huge 450-plus total to set up an innings victory.

“It was nice to get Tino, because when he got me out there was a bit of banter going on and he gave me something of a send-off,” he said.

Livingstone puts Lancashire’s fine start to the new season after promotion, to the fact that they are a young side and friends off the pitch. Plus there is a lack of pressure to do well in the four-day game.

“I just want to do as well as I can in all forms of the game and make a push for all three trophies,” said Livingstone, whose side head to the Riverside to take on Durham in their next County Championship match, starting tomorrow.

It is in the shorter version of the game that Lancashire, with a long history of success in one-day matches, landed a trophy in 2015.

It was in the Natwest Twenty20 Blast that Barrow CC product Livingstone, who signed professional forms at Lancashire in 2014, made his big breakthrough into the first team, helping them to lift the trophy at Edgbaston in August.

“We have got the T20 to defend, so there is pressure on us to do that,” he added. “It is a massive year but we have played a lot of good T20 cricket and we are sitting in a very good position.”

The former Barrow CC ace’s reputation as a big hitter gathered pace last year with a match-winning 93 against Kent at Canterbury in the Royal London One Day Cup.

After playing Minor Counties for Cumberland, he made his mark in Lancashire seconds – including an eye-catching 204 in a three-day friendly at Headingley – and is now settling in, with the target “to do just as well as I can and help Lancashire to push for trophies in all forms of the game.”