Surrey all-rounder Zafar Ansari insists he is focussed on his domestic goals rather than future international honours after making his full England debut.
After ten days off, Surrey were back in County Championship action against Leicestershire at the Kia Oval, claiming a seven-wicket victory yesterday – their first of the season.
Ansari, 23, took six second-innings wickets to continue his fine form that saw him make his international bow against Ireland on Friday- where Ireland scored 58-4 before rain ended play.
But despite that debut, it is his domestic form that he is concentrating on most.
“I would like to get at least three first-class hundreds and I would like to break 1,000 runs,” he said.
“Also if I could get above 25 wickets – towards 30 – in first-class cricket I think that would be a really good tally.”
So far Ansari, who has been interesting international selectors with his left-arm spin, has scored 81 runs at an average of 20.5 and taken 11 wickets in his side’s opening three championship games.
In terms of the team’s ambitions, although Ansari admits it would be great to lift a one-day trophy – their last one being back in 2011 – he says promotion back to Division One has to be the priority.
“I would probably prefer to win Division Two than a one-day trophy because you feel like you are out of things a little bit in Division One,” he said.
“In one-day cricket we’ve been pretty successful over the last three or four years in that we’ve won the CB40 and we’ve been at T20 finals’ day twice.”
Surrey begin their Natwest T20 Blast campaign against Glamorgan at the Kia Oval on Friday.
