Ravi Bopara is one of England's most exciting young cricketers. The 23-year-old Essex all-rounder has played three Tests and 33 one-day internationals and this month an Indian Premier League team spent more than £300,000 for his services. 2009 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet for Bopara and it starts this week with an England Lions tour of New Zealand. The team's first game is against an emerging New Zealand XI on 22 February. In his first diary entry for Standard Sport, Bopara outlines his ambitions . . .

It's been an interesting few weeks for me, to say the least. As you may know, I've been signed up to play in this year's Indian Premier League tournament after being 'bought' by the Punjab Kings XI.

I can safely say it's the first time I've ever been entered into an auction and I was feeling pretty nervous beforehand - for a start, what happens if no one puts a bid in for me? The lads in the Essex dressing room would never let me live it down!

As it turned out I was very pleased to be signed up by a team who got to the semi-finals of last year's tournament. They are based in Mohali which, funnily enough, is only 80 or so miles from where my family originally comes from, so that makes it all a little more special for me.

They've got a really strong squad, including Australia's Brett Lee and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and they're captained by India batsman Yuvraj Singh, who I got to know well during our one-day tour to India last year when he was scoring runs for fun against England.

One of the key reasons for wanting to be part of the IPL is to get the chance to rub shoulders with, and learn from, some of the best players in the world. And with team-mates like those mentioned that can only help improve me a cricketer.

My dream has always been to get a regular spot in the England Test team and I'm hoping the experience of playing in the IPL will help me make that come true.

My mind at the moment, though, is focused on other things. Before flying out to the West Indies to join up with the England One-day squad in March, I have the chance to remind the selectors what I can do on the England Lions tour of New Zealand.

With players such as Rob Key, Sajid Mahmood, Luke Wright and Samit Patel in our squad we've got a lot of guys with international experience who, like me, are all desperate to play for England.