Australian batsman Michael Di Venuto is warning his Durham team-mate Phil Mustard not to get carried away with his international call-up.

Mustard is opening the batting for England's one-day side in Sri Lanka and his first two appearances have brought knocks of 28 and 27.

Sunderland born Mustard was outstanding with the bat in the domestic one-day competitions this summer.

The 24-year-old finished second in Durham's averages with 409 runs at 58.42 in the NatWest Pr40 and 154 runs at 38.5 in the Twenty20 Cup.

Mustard also cracked 484 runs at 44 in the Friends Provident Trophy, but his County Championship batting average of 701 runs at 25.96 was modest.

Di Venuto believes that while Mustard deserves an opportunity at limited-overs international level, talk of him taking over the gloves from Matt Prior in the Test side is premature.

"Phil has been brilliant for Durham this year and he's proved how talented he is with the bat in the one-day competitions," Di Venuto said.

"He hits the ball very hard, he likes to dominate bowlers and he deserves his chance to play some one-day internationals for England this winter.

"I'm not surprised that he has been picked but at this stage he's got a few things to learn before he is ready for Test cricket.

"He needs to improve his County Championship batting average and I think he can also improve his wicket-keeping.

"It's about consistency and Phil is still learning what it takes to be a good wicket-keeper/batsman and he knows that he can't let his keeping slip because he's in good form with the bat."

Nottinghamshire's Australian star David Hussey needs no convincing that his county team-mate Chris Read is the best gloveman in the country.

Read has played 15 Tests and 36 limited-overs internationals for England but his batting averages are below 20 and he is currently down the pecking order.

The prolific Hussey admires Mustard's batting but is sceptical of his keeping ability at the highest level.

"Phil's a good batsman but I'm not overly impressed by his keeping," said Hussey.

"I was surprised they (the selectors) picked him ahead of Chris Read because Chris is the best wicket-keeper in the country.

"In England they tend to pick a keeper for his batting first and then his keeping, so Chris doesn't get a game because he isn't the best batsman around, but that puts pressure on the keeper who is picked to score big runs.

"Matt Prior is a powerful striker of the ball and Phil can do that but I'm not sure if Phil's wicket-keeping is good enough for international cricket yet."

Mustard has been joined by Riverside team-mate Graham Onions in the England Performance Programme squad.

Young Yorkshire sensation Adil Rashid has also been included, along with Stuart Board.

The programme begins with two-and-a-half weeks at the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough before a high-performance camp in India for four weeks during November and December. Two four-day matches are planned during the spell in Mohali and Chennai.

The squad for England Lions' one-day tour in February 2008 will be confirmed in late December.