York’s Jonny Bairstow is one of four Yorkshire County Cricket Club players to have been named in the England Lions squad for the two-month tour of the West Indies in January.

The 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman joins Andrew Gale, Adam Lyth and Adil Rashid in the 17-man party, which also includes current Ashes ace Steven Finn for the first half of the trip.

Bairstow, Gale and Lyth today fly back from Australia, where they have been for the last month on the ECB’s Performance Programme training camp.

Bairstow, who acted as 12th man for the full England side during the opening Ashes Test at Brisbane last month, also guided the EPP side over the line with 24 not out off 25 balls in a four-day friendly win against Western Australia last week.

But the inclusion of Rashid’s name in the squad is arguably the most eye-catching from a Yorkshire point of view.

He was left out of the trip down under in order to give him some rare time away from the game, but he has been back in pre-season training with the White Rose county at Headingley in the last few weeks.

The 22-year-old leg spinner took 93 wickets in all competitions for Yorkshire during the 2010 summer.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket, said: “Adil’s been going fine. He’s been a bit ill of late, so he’s not done too much cricket work with us. But, other than his illness, he’s been going pretty well.

“I said that if he wasn’t going to be selected for the full Ashes tour, in my opinion, it would be a good idea to give him a break from cricket rather than go with the Performance Programme squad or anything like that.

“And I think he will benefit in the long term from this bit of a break because he’s not had one prior to this for three or four years.”

The Lions, captained by Somerset’s James Hildreth instead of Gale, will be competing in the West Indian domestic tournament, and they will play seven four-day fixtures between January 24 and March 28.

Moxon continued: “Playing competitive cricket over there will obviously be good development for them as well as providing them with the opportunity to push their claims for the full England sides.”

Gale and Lyth have both scored hundreds in four-day matches against WA and Queensland. Like Bairstow, Lyth also undertook 12th man duties at Brisbane.

“The information that I have had is that the three lads impressed in Australia,” added Moxon.

As far as Yorkshire are concerned, all four players will miss the majority of the county’s pre-season preparations, only arriving back in the UK 12 days before the English domestic season starts.