LIAM Livingstone has earned a third England Lions call-up after an impressive winter tour to Sri Lanka.

The Barrow batsman is part of a 13-man squad to face Sri Lanka A in a three-match one-day series next month.

Livingstone hit his career-best First Class score of 168 for Lancashire against Somerset in the County Championship last month, though he struggled to find form in the subsequent limited over Royal London One-Day Cup matches.

However, the 23-year-old did enough during the winter – when he hit two centuries in one game for the Lions against Sri Lanka and displayed great spinning skills with the ball as well – and the early part of the season to be picked for England once more.

He had been seen as an outside chance to be in the full England squad to play Ireland earlier month or for the upcoming Champions Trophy, though that call-up did not materialise.

The Lions will play South Africa at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on June 1, and then in two games at Northampton on June 3 and 5. As a result, he will miss Lancashire's County Championship match against Yorkshire at Headingley, which starts on June 2.

They also play a four-day game against South Africa A at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, from June 21 to 24, and then a three-day match against the senior South Africa tourists in Worcester from June 29 to July 1, with squads for those matches to be named next month.

The Lions squad includes experienced players such as Hampshire's James Vince, and national selector James Whitaker said: “We wanted to select a strong and experienced Lions squad for this series, as it coincides with the early stages of the ICC Champions Trophy, and therefore provides us with the opportunity to keep our standby players in white-ball action.

“The quality of the squad we have selected reflects well on the strength in depth we now have in 50-over cricket which has emerged through the county game. All the players in this squad will have the 2019 World Cup in their sights, and playing for the Lions offers them the platform to show what they can do.

“In addition to his considerable captaincy experience with Hampshire, James Vince has led the Lions before, to an excellent series victory against South Africa A in early 2015 and again when they played 50-over and T20 series against Pakistan A in Dubai in the winter of 2015/16 – and he also impressed in captaining the South to victory in the North-South Series earlier this year. He is a good tactical reader of the game.

“We were also mindful in selecting this squad that the series coincides with an important round of matches in the Specsavers County Championship. As ever we are grateful to the counties for their support, and for appreciating the importance of the Lions programme in developing players for international cricket.”