AS confidence boosters go, Paul Collingwood’s pre-Ashes net with a spinner from Newport wasn’t exactly ideal.

Imran Hassan, a leg-spinning all-rounder and Glamorgan’s academy player of the year in 2008, managed to claim the scalp of the Durham batsman – one of the best players of slow bowling in Andrew Strauss’ squad.

The 17-year-old has been a regular for the county’s seconds this season and was one of a handful of young prospects picked to put the England and Australia stars through their paces.

Just days after helping Newport to a Premier Division win over Tondu with an unbeaten 44, he was locking horns with some of the sport’s biggest names on the eve of the biggest series.

“Just bowling next to the likes of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann was brilliant,” he said. “We are young players trying to make our way in the game, so to talk to them was amazing.

“You can only learn from being around Mushtaq Ahmed (the England spin coach and former Pakistan great) and bowling at Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff – the best players in the world.

“Musthaq was one of the best spinners there has been so I’d like to be able to take some of the tips from him into my own game.”

Hassan, who has represented England Under-15s, 16s and 18s and who was awarded a Brian Johnston cricket scholarship last year, is being tipped by many to break through to the Glamorgan side in the next few years.

He is a batting all-rounder who likens his game to Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire spinner who made his international bow for England in the World Twenty20 and came close to breaking into the Test squad for today’s Ashes opener.

And yesterday’s experience served to whet Hassan’s appetite for a career in the game.

He said: “You just learn what is different between them and us – the bowlers are just so much more consistent and the batters don’t take the risks and they make it look so easy.

“Hopefully I can take the things I have learned here into my club cricket and into the seconds. It was amazing to be playing alongside your heroes who you have watched from a young age.”