Mickleburgh settles in with Essex

Jaik Mickleburgh has so far hit four fifties in his eight first-class matches

Jaik Mickleburgh is looking forward to getting back into first team action after a promising start to his first-class cricket career with Essex.

The hot Norfolk-born teenage prospect has not played for a month due to a knee injury, but he has made an impact in County Championship cricket.

The former Norfolk batsman said: "It's been excellent, the thing you wish for, as well as playing for your country.

"We had 20 days of cricket in 22 days but I can't wish for anything better."

Essex's Norwich-born Academy product burst on to the County Championship scene with half-centuries in consecutive matches late last season.

He hit 60 against Leicestershire, followed by another career-best 72 against Warwickshire three weeks later.

And he has hit two more this season, 58 against the touring West Indians, as well as 62 in his last Championship appearance against Northants on 6 May.

I'm not going to be playing Test cricket in the next year. Hopefully one, two good years and you never know.

Jaik Mickleburgh

His untimely knee injury has so far cost him any chance of making his name in Twenty20 cricket. But the 19-year-old batsman admits that his experiences in the four-day game have all been part of the learning curve.

"It has been a big insight into how first-class cricket works," said Mickleburgh, who made four Minor Counties Championship appearances for Norfolk in 2007 and also starred in last summer's run to the MCCA Trophy semi-finals.

"We won in two days on my debut," he told BBC Radio Norfolk. "That's how it goes when you're doing well.

"But I think first-class cricket is more about tiring days in the field and being able to get through them.

"It's about being able to stay in and bat for days, and being able to bowl teams out," he said.

Coming up through an academy set-up such as Essex, the young batsman is in good company.

Not only has he been coached by England legend Graham Gooch, he has played alongside current England stars Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara. And he has already been awarded a call-up to the England Under-19s.

But he admits the prospect of a place in the senior England set-up is some way off yet.

"I'm being realistic in that I'm not going to be playing Test cricket in the next year," he said. "I'm going to work hard on my game and what I need to do well, and that's playing Championship cricket for Essex.

"Hopefully one, two good years and you never know what could happen."