JOSH Bohannon believes white ball cricket provides him with his most likely route into Lancashire's first team this summer.

The ex-Farnworth Social Circle all-rounder, a junior club-mate of Haseeb Hameed, has signed his first county scholarship contract, and captain Steven Croft has backed the 19-year-old to push for higher honours in 2017.

The Boltonian believes his best chance of representing the Red Rose county will lie in Twenty20 and one-day games this season.

Bohannon returned from Lancashire's pre-season tour of Dubai earlier this week, where he played in a Twenty20 against Pakistan Super League side Lahore and in a two-day clash with Yorkshire, batting at number three.

Prior to that trip, he scored a T20 century for a Tom Maynard Academy team during a 10-day training camp in Spain, where coaches included former Australia and England internationals Ian Harvey and Matt Maynard.

"If I'm honest, I'd say breaking into the white ball teams is more realistic, especially based on the Championship side we've got, Chanderpaul, Dane Vilas and the lads who are already here," he said.

"We hope not, but a couple of injuries might change things.

"I'd imagine I'll start in the second team, but I don't think that's a bad thing because it's a good way to push my case.

"Especially for the four-day stuff, I need to bat long periods and produce the scores that way. In white ball cricket, I'll just try to score quickly."

A right-handed batsman and a zippy fast medium seamer who swings the ball, Bohannon, who now plays club cricket at Ormskirk, has impressed the Red Rose hierarchy this winter, his first spent training with the senior squad on a full-time basis.

"I did a little bit last year with the first team in winter training, about six weeks, but this winter is the first one I've been around them all the time," he said.

"It's been really good and quite exciting to train with the likes of Jimmy Anderson and other lads who've been around for quite a bit like Karl Brown, Crofty and Luke Procter, who I'm close to.

"You get a sniff of what professional life's like, and it makes you want it even more."

There remains a strong Bolton influence within the Lancashire squad, with Bohannon, Hameed, Matt Parkinson and Karl Brown all hailing from the town.

Bohannon says that has helped him settle into the first-team environment, and he is taking inspiration from Hameed's rapid rise from a Red Rose junior to an England Test Match opener.

"I played with Has in the juniors at Social Circle, so we did a lot of work together, with his dad and my dad also getting involved," he said.

"It just shows how quickly things can change.

"I'm probably in the situation he was around two to three years, but he's gone on and taken his chance.

"That's what Liam Livingstone has done as well.

"He only made his first-class debut last year, but he had a good run of form, scored a couple of hundreds and 70s and 80s not out.

"Now he's wearing an England Lions shirt, and he's probably on for a full international debut this summer in white ball, possibly even Test, cricket if he carries on scoring runs in the Championship."