England debutants now have less top-flight experience than 20 years ago

Inexperienced young players are being fast-tracked into the England squad at an increasing rate, shows a Sky Sports study. 

Over the past 20 years, the average number of top-flight appearances made by a player before they earned their first England cap has steadily decreased. 

In 1996, footballers, on average, made 75 Premier League appearances before making their England debut. 

That average figure is now down to 33 games, with Manchester United's Marcus Rashford and Tottenham's Dele Alli prime examples. 

United striker Rashford only made his professional debut in February but was playing for England by May - after just 11 Premier League appearances. 

Alli, meanwhile, made the step up after just seven top-flight fixtures with Spurs. 

Raheem Sterling (13 top-flight appearances) and Ross Barkley (16) have also been quick to pull on the Three Lions jersey, although Theo Walcott became England's youngest-ever player at 17 years and 74 days in 2006 without making one top-flight appearance. 

Since 1996, seven other players have been handed their England debut without playing one minute in England's top flight: Fraser Forster, Rickie Lambert, Wilfried Zaha, Jack Butland, David Nugent, Owen Hargreaves and Kevin Phillips.

However, Hargreaves made his name in Germany with Bayern Munich and became the only player in history to represent England without ever having lived in the country.

In contrast, Kevin Davies made 382 top-flight appearances before making his England debut against Montenegro in 2010 - more than any other player over the last 20 years.

Tim Sherwood racked up 324 appearances before his first international cap in 1999, followed by Leon Osman (259), Trevor Sinclair (218), James Milner (205), Chris Sutton (194) and Lee Bowyer (192).