Hampshire starlet Prest handed chance to become only second England captain to lift Under-19 World Cup

Tom Prest has been named as skipper of a 15-man squad who will face holders Bangladesh, Canada and the UAE in their qualifying group in the Caribbean next month.

England have only ever won the tournament once in the previous 13 occasions it has been held.

That was in 1998 when Owais Shah - later to play for Hampshire - captained the side that won the second competition, held 10 years after Australia had won the inaugural tournament.

Richard Logan, who also went on to play for Hampshire, was among the winning England squad alongside future Test players Graeme Swann and Rob Key.

Prest hit the headlines last May when he struck an unbeaten 303 for Hampshire 2nds against Sussex - just hours after sitting a Geography A level exam at Canford School, Dorset.

The previous month he had struck an unbeaten 111 playing for Hampshire U18s against their Sussex counterparts.

Prest made his first class debut for the county in July against Sussex as a replacement for James Vince.

The 18-year-old was also a regular in Hampshire’s limited overs teams, playing seven matches in both the Royal London Cup and T20 Cup.

On only his third T20 outing, he struck an unbeaten 59 off 42 balls against Gloucestershire at The Ageas Bowl, winning the man of the match award.

Prest made his England U19 ODI debut in September against the West Indies, going on to play all five games in the series.

He has only recently finishing skippering England in another five-game ODI series in Sri Lanka.

Runs have so far been hard to come by, and Prest is averaging just 9.55 from 10 innings so far with a top score of 22.

England World Cup squad: Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire), Tom Aspinwall (Lancashire), Sonny Baker (Somerset), Nathan Barnwell (Surrey), George Bell (Lancashire), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire, vice-captain), Josh Boyden (Lancashire), James Coles (Sussex), Alex Horton (Glamorgan), Will Luxton (Yorkshire), Tom Prest (Hampshire, captain), James Rew (Somerset), James Sales (Northamptonshire), Fateh Singh (Nottinghamshire), George Thomas (Somerset).

Travelling reserves: Josh Baker (Worcestershire), Ben Cliff (Yorkshire).