DANIELLE Wyatt is hoping her festive foray to Australia will keep her at the forefront of the England selectors' minds.

The 20-year-old all-rounder, pictured below, spent Christmas in the southern hemisphere to fine tune her skills ahead of a hectic schedule on the international calendar.

England have the World Cups in both the 50-over and Twenty20 formats on the horizon in the next 15 months, and yesterday flew to New Zealand to continue their preparations.

They will play five one-dayers and three Twenty20s during the month-long tour. The first one-day international will be played in Wellington on February 17. And Wyatt, part of a 15-strong squad, boarded the flight in confident mood after helping Victoria Spirit to the 20-over state title at the expense of New South Wales, during her 10-week sojourn Down Under.

"Australia was a great experience and being able to play that standard of cricket really helped me develop my game," said Wyatt, from the Westlands in Newcastle.

"It was much better for me to go Australia, rather than training in the cold over the winter. The conditions are different and it helps you become familiar with the way pitches play in that part of the world.

"I performed pretty well with bat and ball and that should stand me in good stead with England in the next year or so, when we've got some big tournaments coming up."

Despite having happy memories of her brief trip to the other side of the world, Wyatt says the scramble now begins to feature in the World Cup squads.

The Twenty20 competition being hosted by Sri Lanka in September, with the 50-over event taking place in India six months' later.

The Staffordshire star was part of the 2009 Twenty20 squad in the Caribbean which relinquished its grip on the trophy in the group stages, although Wyatt made a personal impact by taking 4-11 against South Africa in the final game.

"New Zealand is going to be a tough tour because the prize of going to the biggest tournaments is what all the players want," she added.

"You don't want to be a regular in the England squad and then miss out on a place at the last minute.

"That should keep all of us on our toes and make sure we produce some good quality cricket.

"We're all training hard and know there are girls outside the squad who are ready to come in if we don't perform."

But Wyatt believes that familiar surroundings could help the England team to hit the ground running against New Zealand.

"New Zealand conditions are pretty similar to England, so it shouldn't take us too long to get to grips with the pitches," said Wyatt, who is joined in the party by former county team-mate Georgia Elwiss.

"We've got India and the West Indies coming over this summer before the World Cup, so facing different nations is going be make us more rounded.

"Preparation is really huge for us.

"We want to have all the skills in place to make sure we give ourselves the best chance of being world champions in both formats by the end of 2013."