HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) — Young Bermudian all-rounder Delray Rawlins will be in exalted company when he plays for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Essex in next month’s Champion County Match in Barbados.

Left-hander Rawlins, 20, who plays for English county side Sussex, has been chosen alongside two former Test players – West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards, 35, and 41-year-old England all-rounder Paul Collingwood – in the floodlit four-day game, the traditional curtain-raiser to the English domestic season, at Kensington Oval between March 27-30.

The MCC team will be captained by Kent’s 24-year-old former England Under-19 player Daniel Bell-Drummond, whose parents are Jamaican.

“I’m obviously really pleased to be selected in such a good group of players,” Rawlins, who played for England Under-19s last year, told the Royal Gazette newspaper.

“With it being my first time, I’m just going to try and enjoy the occasion and take it all in.

“There are some pretty experienced heads in that team, so I will look to pick their brains while I am there and soak it all in.

“I have played against and with some and also been coached by Collingwood, so I know some of them, which makes me feel more comfortable going into it.”

He added: “It will be nice to play against a good side in Essex and test myself against them. But, most importantly, I just hope I can learn from the experience.

“My parents will be coming down to watch as well, which is very exciting because they miss a lot of cricket. Knowing that extra support is in the stands is exciting.”

MCC head of cricket John Stephenson said: “This is a young, talented and exciting team which we’re very much looking forward to seeing take on Essex, and giving them exposure to the longer format of day/night cricket.”

Previous curtain-raisers, which pit the MCC against the previous season’s County Championship winners, have been staged in the United Arab Emirates.

But this year Barbados, which will host a festival of English cricket in the spring, was chosen instead.

Rawlins will already be in Barbados ahead of the MCC match as he has also been picked for the North-South series, which was launched in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last year as part of England’s preparations for hosting the 2019 World Cup.

Rawlins and his Sussex team-mate George Garton have been named in a 13-man South squad to be led by Sam Northeast, the Kent captain, and coached by Mark Ramprakash, the former England batsman.

The North-South Series is a three-game contest to be held on March 18, 21 and 23, with the first two matches at Kensington Oval and the third at 3Ws Oval.