Mick Newell is backing Nottinghamshire's batsmen to continue playing aggressively ahead of the friendly against Derbyshire starting tomorrow.
The previous pre-season fixture against Northamptonshire saw five batsmen pass 50 and retire in an opening day total of 312-1 off 60 overs.
An alternative group of players then posted 186-2 in 30 overs on the second day, meaning Newell's men had established a run-rate of over five-and-a-half runs an over throughout the contest.
Newell admits there will be occasions when such a positive approach proves to be their undoing but, on the whole, he sees significant advantages to keeping the scoreboard rattling along.
"We’ve got positive batsmen and one of the reasons why we’re a strong one-day side is that we score at a good rate – and we tend to bring that into our four-day cricket as well," Newell said.
"Very rarely do we score slowly in four-day cricket. That can be a good thing and occasionally it can be a bad thing, but that’s the way we play.
"Everybody who has had a bat has impressed. Most of them have made fifties over the course of the two days against Northants and our internal game yesterday – and that’s what we want to see."
Tomorrow's opposition have only a short distance to travel to Trent Bridge for the fixture. And Newell says it's the geography, together with his trust in Graeme Welch's side to be competitive, that makes them suitable pre-season opposition.
Playing the game at Trent Bridge, meanwhile, means maximising the opportunity of playing as much cricket as possible.
"We know what we want to get out of this," he said. "We want to see certain players scoring runs and plenty of overs into our bowlers.
"To do that, we need to be challenged and I would expect Derbyshire, as they always do against Notts, to do that as they’ll want to get a lot out of it themselves.
"We’re quite happy to play against Northants, Derbyshire or Leicestershire. It’s just a local thing and I like playing here at Trent Bridge because the outfield is so good that we know, if it rains overnight, we’ll be okay the following day.
"It’s a strategic thing to play at home, but the opposition is purely based on locality."
Likely to feature on Day 2 of the fixture, when Newell will name a new eleven, is Mansfield-born seamer Jake Ball, who continues to impress his director of cricket during pre-season.
"Players know they have to make my decisions difficult next week when we pick the eleven to play against Loughborough, which will be very close to the team that’s going to play at Lord’s," Newell said.
"The seam bowling is really hotting up because Jake Ball is bowling so well. He’s been the standout bowler in the pre-season games.
"He’s putting his name very much forward and putting a lot of pressure on guys more senior than him."
Nottinghamshire 12 man squad to face Derbyshire [Day 1]: Greg Smith, Steven Mullaney, James Taylor, Chris Read, Sam Wood, Luke Wood, Will Gidman, Brett Hutton, Tom Keast, Anuj Dal, Andrew Carter, and Adam Tilcock.
Play starts at 11am each day, entry to Trent Bridge for the match is free of charge and refreshments will be available in the pavilion. Car Parking will be available on the Notts Sports Ground Car Park. The Nottingham Forest Car Park will not be available on either of the two days.
We pride ourselves on offering the best value membership in the country, packing it full of features and pairing it with the best customer experience in the game. With Nottinghamshire looking to challenge across all formats once more, don’t miss a moment of the action and join our Club now.