FORMER England captain Bob Willis has joined the growing 'Chris Tremlett for England' club.

Shane Warne has regularly talked up Tremlett's England chances since taking over the Rose Bowl captaincy last summer - most recently in the wake of the Southampton-born seam bowler's career best 6-44 haul at Hove last week.

And, in his exclusive Daily Echo column earlier this week, Simon Katich also spoke highly of the Hampshire youngster.

Now ex-England captain Willis has spoken of his belief that the 23-year-old will be the first Hampshire home-grown player to play Test cricket for England since Paul Terry more than two decades ago.

Sky TV analyst Willis will get a chance to see Tremlett at close range tomorrow when he commentates on Hampshire's totesport League Division One clash with Northamptonshire at Wantage Road (1pm).

"I rate Chris very highly indeed," remarked Willis. "The problem he has had is staying fit for a couple of seasons. I know how he feels because I had a few injuries at the start of my career and it was only when I reached my maximum fitness that the injuries stopped.

"My advice to Chris would be to continue working on his fitness at all times, because he's got height advantage on his side.

"He's also had to play on some Rose Bowl wickets which are still settling down. As they have found at Chester-le-Street, it does take some time for a newly-laid wicket to bed down.

"But there is a window of opportunity with England at the moment - James Anderson is in poor form and Chris could well take advantage if he maintains his form."

Tremlett will be one of Hampshire's key players when international calls take Warne, Katich and Kevin Pietersen away from the Rose Bowl.

Willis continued: "People are unfairly saying Hampshire's season will be one of two halves. What they will do when Warne, Pietersen and Katich play, and what they will do when they don't. But cricket shouldn't be a game where you rely on three players.

"Hampshire have cleared a lot of deadwood out of their squad, but I know they have had a problem in the last ten years or so of producing locally-born batsmen. The only batsmen they've produced for England in over 20 years are the Smith brothers and Paul Terry, and so that's something they need to work on - and I know Rod Bransgrove is keen to do that.

"As for Kevin Pietersen, he's a special talent - what he did for England in the winter was phenomenal.

"He'll be a lot more confident after doing so well for England in what were difficult circumstances, and you'll see a different character to the one he was at Notts.

"Having Shane Warne as his captain will help him - Shane will build him up when he needs to, but also be quick to knock him down if he's getting a bit too cocky.

"I hope Pietersen plays in the Ashes series. I hope the selectors are bold enough to pick him. I hope he's selected to face Bangladesh before then so he can get his confidence up by scoring a few cheap runs.

"There were some technical aspects of his game on show in the one-dayers that could be exposed in Test cricket, but then he might be the sort of player who can change the way he plays in Test cricket. We certainly wait with baited breath."

Hampshire have named a 13-man squad for tomorrow's clash and Monday's totesport League game against Gloucestershire at the Rose Bowl.

Dimi Mascarenhas is included in a one-day squad for the first time while batsman Jimmy Adams is the only other player in the squad who did not feature in the opening totesport League loss to Essex.

Hampshire (from): Kenway, Katich, Ervine, Crawley, Pietersen, Pothas, Warne, Udal, Mascarenhas, Adams, Tremlett, Mullally, Logan.

Sky Sports is broadcasting more than 50 domestic cricket matches this summer exclusively live, including Northants vs Hampshire tomorrow.