When Ben Hollioake was out in the final Test of the `A' tour of Sri Lanka, trying to hit his 11th six but instead top-edging a pull to deep midwicket, he looked devastated as he trooped off. Most would have settled for 163 off only 189 balls, but he clearly had a double-hundred in his sights.

"Yes, I was very disappointed not to get there," he said afterwards. He knew that he might not get such an opportunity in first-class cricket for some time, and opportunities are something he seldom passes up. Witness his dazzling 63 on his only one-day appearance for England, against Australia at Lord's last May. Witness his matchwinning 98 in the Benson & Hedges Cup final, and now witness the way he set out to convince the England 'A' management, both of them selectors, that he could be a Test No. 6.

"Ben's come a long way on this trip," said that grey-beard of wisdom, `A' team coach Mike Gatting, stroking his chin as the final one-day international unfurled before us. "He's obviously come on with the bat," Gatting continued, "but also with the ball. There is no doubt he has the potential to be a genuine all-rounder. It's how much he desires it and how much commitment he's prepared to give. He could make a lot of people very happy."

The indications are, notwithstanding the laid-back approach, that Hollioake has that desire. He hates being rested from warm-up matches, as he was from the last game before the First Test in Sri Lanka. He likes to be in the game the whole time, whether batting, bowling or standing at slip – where I cannot recall him missing a single catch on the tour, off either seamers or spinners. His hands are unusually big, as you notice from his strong handshake.

For one of natural gifts he is a good listener, according to Gatting."He's obviously keen to learn and play at the highest level. He's shown the discipline for that. That's what's really impressed me about his batting. He's worked out a plan for their spinners and stuck to it. He's been a revelation – I didn't really know him before."

What are his thoughts in hindsight about being given such an early Test debut? "I deserved it and I didn't deserve it," he says, with a characteristic mixture of self-belief and realism

In the Tests Hollioake was the only batsman who came down the pitch not just when the ball was turning into the pads but when it was turning away. He never telegraphed his sorties to spinners who would have been watching hawklike for the slightest betrayal of his intensions. And when he was not quite there for the drive, he simply blocked. "I used to get caught off spinners at long-on or long-off more than I should during the year I had at school in Perth. I've kept that in mind ever since and will keep it up for the rest of my life." His selectivity was a feature of all his `A'-Test innings – 67, 103, 45 and 163. "He has injected discipline into his game at a very young age," purred Gatting.

It was not just by coming down the wicket that Hollioake messed up the Sri Lankan spinners, no fewer than nine of whom appeared in the Tests. He continually lapped them fine from wide of off stump, and when they bowled straighter he swept them. Eight of the ten sixes in his 163 came from sweeps.

Yet he never really played the sweep before the tour, he says, and only started doing so to create gaps elsewhere and relieve pressure. "It's good that I've played it quite well, and I must thank Alan Knott who taught us a fair bit about how you sweep if it's in a particular six-inch corridor outside off stump. I also remember Saqlain Mushtaq telling me that sweeping annoyed him more than anything, especially if you played the ball to the 45-degree position if there was no-one there, and then to square leg if he was moved to the 45."

Hollioake is quick to credit Gatt and Graham Gooch, two great players of spin, for their advice. "They've helped a fair few of the lads. I used to line up the ball against spinners with the pad too much, and they've got me to move with the bat more.If it turns, you can then go with it."

He now feels happy going in against the spinners. "Before the tour, I much preferred to face pace first and spin later. I love the ball coming on and love it when bowlers bowl short. If they put two men out for the top-edged pull or hook, I'll back myself against a medium-pacer to keep it down. But really, I suppose it depends on the pace and bounce of the wicket. I'm certainly not a compulsive hooker – but being brought up at The Oval encourages you to play the shot."

Already, Ben Hollioake has set himself targets for the coming season. He wants 1000 first-class runs and 50 wickets. Both goals have been made more attainable by the departure of Chris Lewis for Leicestershire. He should get in higher up the order in the Championship, having mostly been at No.7 or 8 last year. "The batting was so strong that I just had to accept that," he recalls. It's a major reason why his maiden first-class hundred, in the Matara Test, came as late as his 29th innings.

Hollioake knows he is not a perfect batsman technically. "There's not a batting coach in the world that would get a good technique out of me," he smiles, modestly glossing over how still he keeps his head. But it will be interesting to see how much he moves his feet in the Caribbean, if he can break into the one-day side, and in England this season at the start of an innings. It is a technical failing he is well aware of. "I just don't know why I'm sometimes so static early on – maybe it's because I'm not seeing the ball so well and don't want to commit myself." Gatting feels he may need to stand with his legs further apart to make it easier for him to get forward quicker. Wherever his feet are, though, he still plays the ball late, as the best batsmen do.

He does not like to accept that his batting is better than his bowling, "I like to consider myself as good at each. With Chris Lewis and Martin Bicknell opening for Surrey last year, followed by the best leggie in England in Ian Salisbury and the best offie in the world in Saqlain, there wasn't much room for me to take wickets. I also had a niggling ankle injury that held me back."

Gatting was delighted with Hollioake's bowling in Sri Lanka, a graveyard for pace bowlers with its generally slow, flat pitches – not to mention extreme heat and debilitating humidity. "What impressed me was Ben's improved control. Ever since Sharjah, he's been running in and hitting a length, and he can bowl some quick deliveries." At times he was the quickest bowler in Sri Lanka. `What I like about him is that he hits the deck hard,' echoed Graham Gooch, and this, along with his 6ft 2in frame, ensures that he gets bounce.

While Hollioake has put on some pace since last summer, the advance in his bowling has not been as rapid as that in his batting, which appears the stronger suit. Perhaps subconsciously, he admits this when he says that he will get to know his action better over the next two years, as well as putting on more pace – all seam bowlers get quicker between the age of 20 and 22.

In Sri Lanka he lost his rhythm in mid-tour. "I'm not sure why. Maybe because I was trying too hard with the new ball when it's so vital to get wickets with it here." Possessing an open-chested action, he occasionally has problems if his left arm falls away, which makes him push the ball down the leg side because his hand is not behind it.

He works hard in the nets with the ball, although sometimes his concentration wavers with the bat. On the day before the Second Test, he was out carelessly to his first two balls from Dean Cosker, his old mate from Millfield schooldays. "He's always been my rabbit," said Cosker, whereupon Gatting tried to wind Hollioake up with an impersonation of the animal – two fingers stuck in the air above his ears – to raucous squawks of laughter.

I bowled at the team in the nets at Kurunegala the day before the First Test, and asked Ben to show me his grip for the slower ball. "I've got several, actually," he replied. "There's this one that Glenn McGrath uses, this one that Adam uses and this one that I came up with. I'm lucky I can fit the ball in at the base of my fingers, as most guys physically can't do it." The last one must take a lot of practice. "A lot."

His bowling mentor is Graham Dilley, who was Surrey's assistant coach for Ben's first two years at The Oval and is now a part-time member of Team England. "Dill taught me most of what I know, so it was natural that I continued working with him in the nets prior to Sharjah. The great thing about him is that he understands the fact I'm a different bowler to someone else. He seems to know what is right for different bowlers."

Hollioake admits that he realised in Sri Lanka he would have to get fitter. "I don't have a problem with the lung side of fitness, but I'll be working on flexibility and strength. Swimming's a great form of training, and I'll be doing a lot of that in Perth at my parents' in the three weeks after the tour." He went straight to Australia from Sri Lanka, planning to return only a few days before flying out to the West Indies with the other England one-day men on March 20. He has few regrets that he did not make the full tour. "The selectors were probably right not picking me. I could have been carrying the drinks most of the time, but here, I've made two first-class hundreds and been an important member of the team."

What are his thoughts in hindsight on being given such an early Test debut? "I deserved it and I didn't deserve it," he says, with a characteristic mixture of self-belief and realism. "I mean I'm quite aware that other guys of the same age with better figures didn't get the call. But I took it as a compliment that the Aussies sledged me non-stop at Lord's and then said nothing to me at Trent Bridge. I was seeing the ball like a watermelon in the first innings there. Maybe I got a little carried away in getting out, but in the second innings I got a good one from Warne and there's no disgrace in that."

He was disappointed not to play in Sharjah, although he fully understood the reasons for his omission. "I didn't score heavily in the warm-up games in Pakistan, where the others played so well. David Graveney explained to me that they had to go for players in form, especially on such a short tour. But even though I wasn't playing, I felt very much part of the squad. Sometimes these things help you, but the previous time it happened, at the end of the 1996 season when I was dropped for the last two Sunday League games for someone with more experience, it really hurt as I was one of our best Sunday bowlers that year." Surrey won the Sunday title, with Hollioake taking 5 for 10 from eight overs in one high-scoring game against Derbyshire.

He admits he is an emotional cricketer, and while he does not show it with the bat, when he can look `so casual' (in the words of Sri Lanka `A' captain Marvan Atapattu), with the ball his feelings frequently erupted during the tour. "I suppose it's because here some of the days in the field are as hard a pill to swallow as any you'll get," he admitted, in a veiled reference to some diabolical umpiring decisions. At times he allowed his frustration to show all too visibly to the Sri Lankan batsmen, a point on which Gooch picked up, urging him to hide it as it played into the batsmen's hands.

With the bat though, it was the Sri Lankans who were driven to distraction by him. "What's he doing here?" wondered their team manager, Ranjith Fernando. "Why isn't he in the West Indies? What a temperament he has."

Geoffrey Dean is a cricket writer for The Times

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