Our highest scoring batsman in England right now plays for the other side The one that got away? Sam Robson could represent England in the future. A week before Australia lobbed on England's south coast, there was another Australian here compiling runs, and lots of them. Sam Robson, the 24-year-old opener born and raised in Sydney, chalked up 166 over 6½ hours for Middlesex against Sussex, on the same ground where Australia prepared for Thursday's third Test. It was his third ton in a County Championship season in which he is the highest run-scorer in England. Until this year, such a feat may have barely registered back in Australia. But the growing intrigue about Robson's allegiance - he qualifies to represent England next year on residency grounds, but has not ruled out playing Test cricket for Australia - has dropped him right in the middle of what may turn out to be an Ashes-themed tug-of-war. "It's all happened really quickly this year," Robson said. A year ago I was just playing for Middlesex, just trying to improve and keep getting better, and trying to establish myself in the team. While I've been solid over here, this is the first year I've caught a lot of attention. Middlesex have had a really good year in the championship, so I've managed to get a few runs so I haven't really gone under the radar. In the midst of an Ashes series in which Australia's top-order batsmen have struggled to score let alone survive, Robson could be just what they need. A four-day specialist ("I don't really play any of the Twenty20s") he traded Sydney for London straight after school six years ago, after he found he was stuck behind a procession of NSW batsmen, including a fair portion of the present Australian batting order. "I had a rookie contract at NSW, and they were good to me, but at the time there were no gaps," he said. I wasn't ready anyway but it was just the fact there was no logical way into the team. They had Phillip Hughes, [Shane] Watson, [Usman] Khawaja, [Simon] Katich, Phil Jaques, all these blokes. There was no way in at the time so I came over to England, trialled with Middlesex and got offered a contract here. I've been in a weird situation but my goal has always been just to try and improve and get better, that's been my big thing. Robson continues to play grade cricket for Easts in Sydney in the summer when he can, and his father Jim, a former state selector, runs the indoor nets at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Robson often trains when home. The links with Australia remain but it says much about the state of the game - including the exclusive focus on the Twenty20 Big Bash at the heart of the summer - that one of the main reasons he continues to call England home is because it offers him more first-class cricket. You would hope and imagine the likes of Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's high performance manager, would be beating down his door and twisting his arm to get him back to the Sheffield Shield and into the Australian set-up. The problem is it may already be too late. Robson has been asked the question a lot lately: England or Australia? The impression is he is stuck somewhere in between in his mind, but there is no doubt it's in London where he sees himself for the foreseeable future. I'm used to it over here, and I enjoy life in London ... I get to train and play at Lord's, which is just unbelievable ... and I love playing the County system. You get 16 four-day games a year ... you're just playing all the time and travelling around," Robson said. For a player like myself at the moment, I see England as the best place for my cricketing development. My whole mantra has just been to play and see where I end up. If things pan out down the line and I have to make decisions, well that's just how it is ... I'll play it all by ear.