Steve Kirby deserves his England chance - The Jon Lewis column

The England winter tour parties are due to be announced shortly and I think Steve Kirby has a very good chance of making the performance squad.

This will basically act as a back-up squad to the senior one and will be in South Africa at the same time.

I believe the performance squad is going to be based in Cape Town for six to eight weeks, and Steve has been pushing hard for a place.

He has bowled very well this summer and I think he's probably the leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers in the country. He's got 59 wickets in the Championship and around 90 wickets in all competitions.

I reckon he's progressed as a bowler every year he's been at Gloucestershire and works hard on improving his skills.

He was selected for the England Lions side that took on Australia at Worcester and I know he was happy with the way he bowled in that game.

In terms of making the next step up, it's probably now or never for him. He's 31 and a similar age as I was when I first got recognition from England.

The next two or three years could be his best as a bowler and he'll be hoping he gets the opportunity to prove he can do it at the top level.

Looking at the competition for places, there's no doubt there's plenty around.

I think the senior squad will take six pace bowlers, in James Anderson, Graham Onions, Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison and Luke Wright.

For the performance squad, as well as Kirbs, I'd say the most likely candidates are Tim Bresnan, Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and maybe Middlesex's Steve Finn, who is a good, young fast bowler.

Unfortunately, it looks as though Kirbs is going to pip me as to who ends up with the most wickets for Gloucestershire in four-day cricket this season.

I have a bit of banter with him every year about this, but there's nothing financially resting on the outcome. It's a different matter when I play him at golf, because I can beat him easily at that!

I haven't given up hope of catching him just yet and the fact I took three wickets in Glamorgan's first innings on Wednesday, when he only got one, has helped.

That took my tally for the season up to 48 and I've been very happy with my form this season.

I feel I've bowled well all year and I'm proud that I've been able to contribute to the team on a consistent basis.

I've only taken one five-for, but my role in the team has changed a bit. I'm not in the side to bowl the opposition out quickly – I'm there to contribute to the team cause and to try to take a wicket in each spell.

Apart from Kirbs, Alex Gidman is another Gloucestershire player who might get a mention by the selectors when they are choosing the performance squad.

To be honest, I'd be surprised if Alex gets chosen, and I think he would be too. But it's been great to see him perform so well this season after the disappointing time he had last year.

He's been our best batsman this summer and I think he's got the game, mentally, to perform at the next level.

It's all about getting the opportunity and for that to happen he needs to score the weight of runs that will make the selectors come and watch him.

We haven't seen an England selector at our games that much this summer and that's usually a pretty good clue that our players aren't being considered that much.

Nevertheless, Alex has shown a big improvement this year and is close to scoring 1,000 runs, which is always the benchmark of a good season for a batsman.

If he had scored 1,400 to 1,500 runs, he'd be a shoo-in for selection for the performance squad.

At the moment, he's probably in the chasing pack. So the challenge for him next season will be to kick on and get into that next bracket of batsmen.

Interview: Mark Easterbrook