The Durham quick is the leading wicket-taker in county cricket with 35 - but he is refusing to get ahead of himself
Matthew Potts is doing his best to ignore speculation around a maiden England call-up for the New Zealand Test series.
The Durham quick further enhanced his claim with career-best figures of 11 for 101 in victory over Glamorgan - one of just two in round six of the LV= Insurance County Championship.
Potts' second-innings 7 for 40 was his fourth five-for of the campaign, leaving him as the leading wicket-taker in county cricket on 35.
Brendon McCullum is set to unveil his first squad as England head coach this week, but a number of injuries to fast bowlers means fresh faces are likely.
"As for the news articles about England I tend not to try and read them too much," said Potts, according to the ECB Reporters Network, after bowling Durham to victory at Chester-le-Street
Will Ben Stokes give Potts his backing? (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
"It would be silly to read them and get too far ahead of myself. If you look too far ahead you can lose sight of what is in front of you.
"It would be a dream to be picked and obviously to play Test cricket is something I aspire to do, having previously just been a white-ball bowler.
"I feel I have a lot to offer in the red-ball game, hopefully, I can maintain my form and we'll see what happens."
England and New Zealand meet in the first Test on June 2-6 at Lord's, the scene of Potts' next outing when Durham take on Division Two leaders Middlesex starting on Thursday (May 19).
"I'm looking forward to playing Middlesex to go to the Home of Cricket, I've only played there once with The Hundred," he added.
Potts is return to Lord's this week after an outing during The Hundred (George Wood/Getty Images)
"It will be nice to play a red-ball game there to see what it has to offer. It has a good atmosphere and hopefully, it will be a good four days of cricket."
Potts' second innings haul and maiden 10-for may have helped secure Durham's first win of the season, but it still came at a major cost.
"It's always nice to get a career-best, but it hurts the bank account a little bit because you have to get the drinks in," he explained.
"It's nice to do it and nice to do it in a winning cause to get us off the mark in Division Two.
"I think we've played some very good cricket this season so far in parts, but we have not been able to piece together a complete performance.
"We had discussions in the dressing room on Saturday night and we came out fighting for everything to get the win."
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.