JOE Clarke has a similar sort of "batting nous" to Joe Root, according to Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes.

Clarke is only 20 but adapted quickly to the demands of county cricket and the different scenarios that are confronted out in the middle in his first full season at senior level.

He amassed 1200 County Championship runs last summer with five centuries.

Clarke often scored runs when they were most required by the team including hundreds in the successful run chases versus Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

It was those sort of qualities that enabled Root to fast track his way to becoming England's current star batsman alongside skipper Alastair Cook.

And Rhodes hopes that Clarke and Root will one day be batting together on the international stage.

Rhodes said: "Joe (Clarke) is a fast learner. He works things out and has got terrific batting nous.

"He seems to know what people are trying to do to him and those are really important ingredients if you are going to progress quickly to the top.

"Joe Root is a shining example of someone who did just that.

"There are a lot of similarities in the way Joe (Clarke) works things out as well as Joe Root does.

"He is a good sort of yardstick to follow and hopefully one day in the near future they will be batting together."

Clarke is currently part of an England Lions training camp in Dubai ahead of three one-day matches with the UAE and a three-day match versus Afghanistan before a squad is picked for the February-March tour of Sri Lanka.