Everyone seems to be beating each other in the County Championship, which makes it very exciting and keeps the fire lit inside you.

It was awesome to be top of the table after reaching the halfway stage, but of course you don’t win it at this time of year.

Last season we went off the boil a bit, so we’ve got to make a massive push in the second half of the season and win those crucial games, starting with Nottinghamshire this weekend.

On paper, Notts are one of the best teams in the country and it’s up to us to rock up at Trent Bridge on day one and perform to the best of our ability.

We’ll be going into the game without Sam Robson – it’s very exciting that he’s been picked for England – but, even without him, we’ve got a few options.

I think there are three possibilities at the moment and I’m very happy to be batting at three, but if the club want me to go up and open, I’ll gladly do that.

We’ve got Eoin Morgan back as well and it depends on how they want to balance the side. I enjoyed opening with Nick Gubbins at Oxford and I felt we both batted well on a nice wicket.

Nick’s a bright talent for the future – he’s moulded in the four-day mode, which is what Middlesex prefer, and it’s exciting to have young players like that coming through.

After Trent Bridge it’s back to the Oval for our next T20 game against Somerset. We want to do well in all formats and with the squad we have, we should have done a hell of a lot better.

We got close against Kent last week but, to be honest, if you take away Dan Christian’s innings – which was an exceptional knock – I don’t think we were really in the game at any point.

We bowled badly at the death, we kept losing wickets and we just haven’t performed. But we still have eight games left and it only takes one win to start believing.