LIAM Livingstone has been tipped for an England call-up by a former national coach after an impressive winter tour of Sri Lanka.

The Lancashire batsman enjoyed a superb time in Asia as part of the England Lions set-up – and Andy Flower can see him climbing further up the international ladder.

Livingstone tour highlights included back-to-back centuries in a four-day game against Sri Lanka – only the second man to do so for the Lions or their England A and England B predecessors, after Kevin Pietersen – and a top-scoring 94 in the limited-overs games.

He also took seven wickets with the ball, setting him up for the North-South Series in the United Arab Emirates, with matches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.

Lions coach Flower believes a strong showing share will have the South Cumbrian on the brink of a limited-overs call-up for the England team he used to lead.

“Obviously Livingstone was a stand-out performer with the bat throughout the (Sri Lanka) series,” said former the Zimbabwe player ahead of the North's warm-up game with Worcestershire tomorrow.

“If he has a strong North-South Series, I can see him pushing for an international place fairly soon in the limited overs forms of the game.

“He’s shown a real understanding of how to play spin, shown tremendous power, and he’s shown the capacity to learn quite quickly. With his part-time off-spin, he’s stolen some tactics used by the Sri Lankans.

“He’s watched and he’s learned from them, they bowl a very simple style of wicket-to-wicket spin bowling and he’s done exactly what they’ve done to us, and with real success against their batsmen.

“He’s also got the capacity to bowl leg-spin at their right-handers, but because his off-spin was working so well he didn’t resort to it very often.

“But he’s grown in confidence in all aspects of his game, and it’s always nice to see our young players grow in confidence.”

Livingstone ended ending the two-match four-day series against Sri Lanka A with 320 runs at an average of 106.67.

The 23-year-old Barrow CC product followed that up with a strong limited-overs series with the bat and ball. He scored 152 runs across the five matches – with a top score of 94 – at an average of 38.25, hitting the winning runs in the final match as the Lions lost 3-2.

With the ball, Livingstone showed a new prowess for off-spin – having been an accomplished leg-spinner as a youngster under the guidance of Shane Warne's former coach Terry Jenner.

He took seven wickets at an average of 20.57 across the series, standing behind only Tom Helm (eight) in the number of scalps claimed by bowlers on either side.

Flower will help coach the South team in the North-South series, with Livingstone joined by Lions players Keaton Jennings, Ben Duckett, Joe Clarke, Josh Poysden and Graeme White in the North team.

Flower hopes the experiences of Sri Lanka – as well as a pre-Christmas camp in Dubai – will help his Lions men, Livingstone included, in the series.

He added: “Certainly their experiences over the last five weeks, and the training camp in Dubai prior to Christmas, sets them up really nicely, to use some of the skill and knowledge they’ve gained over the winter to put their case forward for selection – right in front of the selectors, and some of the main England coaches.

“So it’s a great opportunity for them, and it will be interesting to see the combination of people trying to put themselves on show in front of those decision-makers, but also whether there is an edge to the cricket with both teams competing to win. We need that, to provide the pressure that the selectors want to see these guys play under.”