Jake Lehmann is following in his father's footsteps

Like father like son for Jake Lehmann (©GettyImages).

Australian cricket has already been well-served by one Lehmann, current national coach Darren, and now it looks as though son Jake could be heading in the right direction as well.

Like father and son

Jake Lehmann has been selected for the South Australian Redbacks squad as they begin their season in the Matador One-Day Cup and he will be hoping to be part of the starting XI when play gets underway.

The 22-year old will obviously be compared with his dad but will also be keen to make a career out of cricket in his own right. He has impressed in pre-season friendlies, and the South Australian Premier League, which has led to his selection into the initial 14-man squad for the Matador Cup.

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Darren's success

His dad, Darren, enjoyed a fantastic first-class and international career. In a career which started in 1987 and lasted until 2008 Lehmann became the leading run-scorer in the history of Sheffield Shield cricket, which has been in existence for 122 years. Lehmann has scored almost 26,000 runs and averages above 57 in all first-class matches.

Lehmann has also represented Australia in 27 Tests and 117 ODIs. Unfortunately for Lehmann he played for Australia in a period of dominance in Test match cricket where Australia had an abundance of World-class batsmen to choose from and, much to his disadvantage, he was deemed as predominantly an ODI player. If not he would surely have played more Test matches for his country.

Jack moving forward

Son Jake looks set to also have a long and successful future in first-class cricket and many are already tipping the youngster to follow in his father's footsteps and play international cricket for Australia. If he achieves half of what his dad did then he will have had a career to remember.

Father Darren will be looking on from afar to see if Jake makes his debut for South Australia as he is currently with the Australian ODI squad in Dubai. I am sure he will be the first person on the phone if young Jake's dreams are realised.