The 25-year-old scored 878 first-class runs at 48.77 for Lancashire in 2021 as well as scoring a half-century for England Lions against Australia A
Over the past two years, Josh Bohannon has emerged as a future England international.
In the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, his third season for Lancashire, Bohannon scored 257 runs at 36.71 – a haul bettered by only Alex Davies - before topping the club's run-scoring charts in 2021, with 878 first-class runs at 48.77.
He went on to be selected for England Lions' tour against Australia A, scoring a half-century in Brisbane against a bowling attack which included the likes of Scott Boland and Michael Neser, and found himself on the cusp of selection for England's spring tour of the Caribbean – "It was obviously gutting (not to get picked) but it was nice to be spoken about, I guess".
And the Boltonian attributes his impressive rise over the past few years to working with sports psychologists to manage his "fiery" on-field temperament.
"Massively," Bohannon replied when asked if working with psychologists helped his form last season. "Even though I'd done well before, you start to think, 'could I have done this if I was in a better state of mind?' Last year was certainly the best state of mind I've been in in cricket, really enjoying it, and obviously, I had some success.
Bohannon acknowledging his half-century for England Lions [Peter Wallis/Getty Images]
"It started about two years ago. I'm quite a fiery bloke – off the field I'm very calm but a lot of stuff on the field gets in my head – so it's about being able to channel that anger when it's needed on the field and pick a battle in the game, as opposed to always being angry.
"It's a lot of work on that sort of thing which has just allowed me to enjoy cricket. I did a little bit of stuff over in Australia with the psychologist over there and then I use [Lancashire psychologist] Lee [Richardson] a lot and a few others to just get a few things off my chest when I feel I need to."
And despite the disappointment of missing out on England's series against West Indies, with the likes of Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley yet to cement a place in the top four or five, Bohannon knows the opportunity to prove himself will come, provided he keeps doing the basics right.
"I just hope I can keep performing," he said. "If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, I can only try my best and keep knocking on that door. The one thing that is blatantly obvious is that when people do get in, they get given a chance.
"Hopefully, if I do get some more runs again this year, or whenever it is that I get a chance, I can stay in for a while and prove that I'm good enough to bat in the top order for England.
"[But] cricket is hard enough as it is playing for Lancashire without putting all that pressure on my shoulders. People have gone wrong with that in the past almost thinking too far ahead – if I do this, I'll get a go.
"So, I’ve done a lot of work again with the psychologist just to make sure that every day I'm in the right space and the more I enjoy cricket, the better chance I've got of scoring runs."
At Lancashire this season, Bohannon will have a slightly different role to 2021, moving from No.4 back to No.3 following Luke Wells' promotion to the top of the order in place of Alex Davies.
Bohannon in T20 action for Lancashire in 2021 [Harry Trump/Getty Images]
The club's batting has been strengthened by the arrival of Phil Salt from Sussex, but arguably more impressive is their bowling line-up while which includes Matt Parkinson, Saqib Mahmood, Tom Bailey, James Anderson and overseas signing Hassan Ali.
However, Bohannon knows the batters cannot rest on their laurels: "We pride ourselves on scoring as many runs as we can and trying to score important runs in important situations.
"We can't just rely on the fact we've got Jimmy, Bails, Hassan, Saqi, Woody, whoever is going to bowl. We can't rely on them to win us the game. We still want to score as many runs as we can and value our partnerships. Nothing has changed."
Away from the red ball, Bohannon also has ambitions of cementing a regular top-order spot in Lancashire's T20 Blast XI having scored just 112 runs in 22 appearances to date while playing in the middle order.
"White-ball is something that's been quite limited recently with the side we've had available, so you're going in and facing two or three balls at the back end if you're playing at all," he said. "It was nice to get a go in the quarter-final against Somerset last year at the top of the order (he scored 35 runs off 20 balls), and hopefully if I get a chance again, I can make it my own."
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