A NIGHTMARE winter turned into a dream spring and summer and an autumn with England for Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone.

Twelve months on from a spell in Australia where his game failed to fire and which left him questioning where his future lay, the 23-year-old Barrovian jets off to Dubai next month with the Lions.

Livingstone has enjoyed a fine maiden season in the Lancashire County Championship side, making 70 on his first-class debut against Nottinghamshire, a century in his second match at Somerset, and establishing himself as a regular in the Red Rose side.

His displays earned him a place in the England Lions side for the summer Tri-Series against Sri Lanka A and Pakistan A – making 64 from 60 balls against the former in a one-day game – and then a place in the Lions squad for their winter training camp in the UAE.

The Ernest Pass product – who made a brief playing return for Barrow as a substitute professional towards the end of the year – admits such a season was far from the front of his mind when he returned to these shores from Australia.

Playing Grade Cricket for Perth side Willetton in Western Australia, he failed to show his true capabilities, ending the season with an average of 30.75 from 20 innings across all competitions. He hit just three 50s and top-scored with 94, admitting he had failed to find his form.

But his reappearance at Old Trafford marked the start of a rejuvenation, with first-team coach Ashley Giles announcing he was going to take a chance on a player who had impressed in the short forms of the game but had never been handed the opportunity in the County Championship.

It was a decision which paid off in spades for both parties.

“It has been a bit mad,” says Livingstone looking back on his season ahead of the Lions training camp next Sunday. “At the start of the year, I came back from Australia not feeling too great, and I didn’t know where my season was going to go.

“It was my aim over the winter to play in the County Championship, but I thought there was no chance of it happening after the winter I had had.

“Luckily, I had a chat with Ashley Giles just before the season started, and he said he was going to take a punt on me. He did, I started really well, and it has just gone from there really.

“I’ve played the way I have always played, at whatever standard of cricket I have been at. Luckily, that’s worked out for me.”

He adds: “I honestly don’t know what went wrong in Australia, I can’t put my finger on it. I didn’t have a very good winter.

“I think I was trying too hard to find something that wasn’t there. I didn’t score any runs, and I was coming back thinking it was going to be another year of second-team cricket.

“Luckily, Ash took a punt on me and it all went from there. Once I got back into playing consistent cricket over here, it was different. The one thing I struggled with in Australia was playing once a week – sometimes you don’t bat for three weeks, which I found quite difficult.

“When you come back home and you’re playing game after game, all of a sudden you forget about what has happened and you just concentrate on playing.”

The transition to the County Championship was swift and successful.

The 70 in his first innings against Notts at Old Trafford begot the century at Taunton begot a first ton in Manchester against Warwickshire. In the one-day game, too, he continued to impress, hitting a career-best 98 from 98 balls as Lancashire defeated Derbyshire in the Royal London Cup.

In the Twenty20 format, which always seemed to suit his attacking style best – Livingstone was part of the title-winning Lancs team last year – he set a new record for the fastest 50 ever hit by a Red Rose player, in just 22 balls. Albeit his mark was beaten just two weeks later by England’s Jos Buttler.

“Ash thought there was something there, and the first game I played I did quite well (scoring 70 against Notts at Old Trafford) and that gave me the confidence to go on from there,” recalls Livingstone.

“I scored the century in the second game at Somerset. It was amazing – it’s one of those things you dream about doing and it’s another step on the ladder.

“To do it in my second game gave me a lot of confidence to play my own way at that level of cricket. It made me realise that I can perform at that level.

“I try to play in a similar way, whether it be Twenty20, one-day cricket, or four-day cricket. I want to go out, be positive and bat the way I play the game. Luckily that worked for me in the first few games, and that gives me the confidence to carry on with it.

“If someone had said that this season I was going to end up playing for the Lions and averaging 50 in Division One of the Championship, I would have laughed.

“As much as I was disappointed with the way Lancashire’s season went, I can’t really be disappointed with the whole season – it went as well as I could have hoped for my first full season in the first division.”

He adds: “The biggest thing for me was to keep up the standards in all formats. If things had gone well in the County Championship, but you don’t perform well in the one-dayers or the Twenty20, then things like the Lions don’t come around.

“Luckily, I performed in all three formats and that gives me confidence going into the winter and also into next season.”

Livingstone ended the County Championship season with an average of 50.95, having scored 815 runs in 23 innings, with the two centuries and six 50s.

That record places him sixth in the averages from players with 10 or more innings across the season.

Now attention switches to the Lions and a desire to impress for them, which could lead to greater things still.

“I couldn’t have dreamed of being in the Lions at the start of the year,” he says. “I’m very pleased to be going away with them.

“It’s just another stepping stone that I need to take in my stride, try and enjoy it, and then try to start performing as I have for Lancs for the Lions and see what happens.

“The camp should be tough, It’s a training camp with a few games at the end of the camp, which should be good for me. It should be good being around players who are at the same stage of their career as I am.

“I’m looking forward to it, it should be a good challenge.”

Given his penchant for meeting such challenges head-on this season, it is one which will be watched with great interest from afar.