Making the transition from indoors to outdoors was never going to be easy.

Often indoor nets are very quick and the ball comes on to the bat nicely – that changes when you get outside, with the pitches tending to be a lot slower and providing much more lateral movement.

Being a player who likes to use the pace of the ball, I’ve struggled a bit early doors with my timing, despite this I’ve managed to have a few decent starts, one of the highlights a 40-odd not out for the academy. Plenty of throw downs and a few one-to-one sessions with academy coaches Gavin Haynes and Damian D’Oliveira should hopefully put me back in good stead.

On a more positive note, I’ve been very pleased with the way I have been keeping. That’s the thing with being a wicketkeeper-batsman, you have ups and downs in both parts of your game and they aren’t always related.

When you’re a wicketkeeper-batsman, you have ups and downs in both parts of your game that aren’t always related

Sometimes you feel like your keeping is going better than your batting, and sometimes it’s the other way round. The hard work in the winter with Steve Rhodes on my keeping seems to be paying off, as I think that I’ve improved my consistency since last year.

The weather once again disrupted the start of the season. I think I speak for all English players in saying that it’s hard to get into a rhythm and start to progress when the weather is so changeable. At least now, things seemed to have brightened up. This might bring some harder quicker pitches, something all batsmen appreciate.

The fixtures will start to come thick and fast in the next few weeks, so this may provide me with the opportunity to get some big scores on the board, whilst continuing the levels of wicket-keeping I have attained recently.