Dominic Sibley: Warwickshire head coach Troughton says opener is best in the country

Dominic Sibley has scored 1,324 Championship runs this season - 210 more than any other batsman

Warwickshire head coach Jim Troughton believes Dominic Sibley is the "best red-ball opener in the country".

The 24-year-old pressed his claim for a place on England's winter tour with 215 not out and 109 in the Bears' eight-wicket victory over Notts this week.

Troughton said: "He is absolutely justified in pushing a case and smashing a door down (to be selected).

"You can't deny you have someone who knows how to score runs and bat long periods of time."

Sibley has scored 1,575 first-class runs in 2019 and has passed 100 six times, including 128 for MCC in the Champion County game against Surrey.

After making 132 against Kent in April and an unbeaten 109 versus Hampshire the following month, Sibley scored a career-best 244 in the return match against Kent in June.

He spent nearly nine hours at the crease, facing 531 balls, for his first-innings double century against Notts, but proved he could up the ante in the second innings, scoring 109 from 147 balls in Warwickshire's successful run-chase.

England travel to New Zealand for a two-match Test series in November and December, with the squad due to be named on Monday afternoon, before four matches in South Africa at the start of 2020.

"He has shown at the back end of last year and all of this year, his monumental efforts and mental strength and technique," added Troughton.

"If there is talk about resting certain players for that series - I think it doesn't count as part of the Test Championship - so if there's an opportunity to do it, brilliant.

"Having said that, regardless of whether or not they are going to rest players, he's the best red-ball opener in the country."

Dominic Sibley had to be given time off from school to score his record-breaking double ton against Yorkshire

Sibley always destined for success?

Before his move to Warwickshire ahead of the 2018 season, Sibley began his career with Surrey and made his first-class debut against Somerset as an 18-year-old in September 2013.

Batting alongside current England opener Rory Burns, he made 10 and 12 but the teenager underlined his potential a couple of week later when he smashed a plethora of records in Surrey's Championship match with Yorkshire.

Once again opening with Burns, Sibley became Surrey's youngest centurion and the youngest double-centurion in the history of the County Championship as he made 242 in his side's mammoth total of 634-5.

A few days after his record-breaking feats, Sibley was named in the England Under-19 touring party for a tri-series in the United Arab Emirates.