Yorkshire young gun Moin Ashraf believes a tough friendly match against India A last summer helped to prepare him for the real McCoy of a must-win County Championship debut against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

The 19-year-old fast bowler from Bradford played his second first-class match against a strong Indian second string at Headingley back in June.

The White Rose county’s attack, including the likes of Tino Best, Oliver Hannon-Dalby and David Wainwright, were flogged for 473-3 declared from 95 overs.

Four of the five Indian batsmen passed 50, with Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane both scoring big hundreds.

Ashraf, who returned 1-71 from 16 overs, said: “I am a fan of the IPL and a fan of Indian cricket in general because they produce so many good cricketers.

“I’d already seen a lot of the guys like Dhawan and Rahane, so to play and bowl against them gave me a good opportunity to compare my performances with the Loughborough game that I’d played in earlier in the season.

“It gave me an idea of how different the margin for error was, how minimal it is when you look at going from playing second-team cricket to playing against international players.

“That India game proved invaluable to my learning because they’re the type of players who you’ll be playing against regularly in the Championship.

“There were a lot of nerves in that Nottinghamshire match, quite a bit of pressure too, but I thought I handled it quite well.”

Ashraf helped fire the Tykes to a stunning victory at Trent Bridge with three wickets in the match – before bettering that with six victims in the final fixture of the season against Kent at Headingley, including a maiden five-wicket haul in the first innings.

He said: “I felt I coped with the pressure of those two matches quite well. But when I go out onto the field, I always try to think ‘you know what, just forget it because what’s going to happen will happen.

“‘Don’t think about it as a first-class game with loads of pressure, think of it as a Moin Ashraf game. You’re here to perform, so just do what you’re here to do’.

“Talking about the game against Kent, there was quite a bit of pressure in terms of playing in front of my home crowd because they’d not seen me much before.

“But the support they gave me and the rest of the team was absolutely incredible. Every wicket I got, there was a massive cheer.

“The ovation I got when I went down to fine leg after getting that five-for was one of the best feelings.”

Ashraf is hopeful that he will get more chances in the first team this coming summer.

He said: “I’ve had a bite of the cake but now I want the full cake. I would love to play a full season for Yorkshire next summer. Whether I get that is up to the coaches.”