HASEEB Hameed is in confident mood heading into the new county summer with Lancashire today, admitting: “I feel I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been going into a season.”

The Bolton batting star is ready to put last season’s barren run of form behind him following a productive winter at home and in the West Indies with the England Lions.

Hameed, the 21-year-old former Tonge and Farnworth Social Circle man, scored only 513 County Championship runs last year without a century and suffered a second broken finger during a late season defeat against Middlesex.

It was a far cry from the 2016 summer, his first full campaign in Lancashire’s first team, when he scored 1,198 runs with four centuries.

That form catapulted him into England’s Test team for a winter series in India, although he broke a finger for the first time in his third Test and was replaced by Keaton Jennings in the side.

Ironically, Jennings has since signed for Lancashire and will open alongside Hameed when Nottinghamshire visit Emirates Old Trafford today.

“The winter’s been split into two halves for me,” said Hameed. “The first part of it was rehab, and then it was nice to get out to the Caribbean with the Lions and into competitive mode in February.

“I’ve also just enjoyed a good pre-season tour with Lancashire in Dubai. I’m really looking forward to getting started.

“I feel in a good place with my batting. I worked on a few things with my technique whilst I was doing my rehab.”

Hameed will form part of an incredibly strong Lancashire batting line-up, arguably the strongest in the country, and they go into 2018 as one of the title favourites.

“With finishing second last year (behind champions Essex), I think that experience will help. The core of the group is pretty much the same with a few additions to strengthen us further,” he said.

“A lot of the experienced lads like Graham Onions can help us push for that title.”

Hameed insists he is not focusing on the chances of an England recall, instead just targeting runs for Lancashire – and not only in the Championship.

Last summer, he played all eight Royal London one-day Cup matches with two fifties and is hoping for more exposure against the white ball.

“I can take a lot of confidence from pre-season tour where we trained with the red ball one day and straight into white ball the next and I could score runs,” he said.

“My game doesn’t change too much between the formats.

“Being able to adapt between the two is pretty easy because I’ve played a lot of one-day cricket growing up.

“Last year, people thought it was the one-day cricket affecting me. That wasn’t the case. Hopefully, I can show I can adapt to both.

“I’m still extremely young, and I don’t like to set limits on what I can achieve. I don’t see why I can’t continue to adapt, work on my game and play all three formats for England in the future.”