Riki Wessels has upped the ante ahead of the Specsavers County Championship match against Warwickshire, stating that it’s time to start scoring heavily and nothing less than centuries will do.
The top seven batsmen have all made important contributions during the course of the opening four matches, but only Steven Mullaney and Chris Read have gone on to reach three figures.
“It’s still early days and we’ve had to come to grips with the wickets a bit," said Wessels. "We’ve actually expected them to do a bit more than they have.”
“They’ve been playing a bit more like August and September wickets really, so you get your head around the pre-season wickets that were seaming and bouncing, to the slower, lower wickets that we saw at Lord’s this week, especially.
“For a few of the boys it would be nice to kick on as we’ve only had two hundreds between us this year in four games.
“Hopefully we can push on from there and start accumulating some big hundreds as well, making 150s and 200s if we can.”
The change to the rules on the toss have altered the dynamics of both the pitches and the thinking of captains so far during the campaign, but Wessels is relaxed about which way it will go against Warwickshire.
“This last round of games saw everybody have a toss in Division One and the away teams all batted first, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Warwickshire thought the same.
“But the wickets we played on last year at home we tended to lose the toss and bat anyway, so for us, batting first isn’t something we are against but I think more and more sides are going to start batting first if they can win the toss.”
Nottinghamshire enjoyed the upper hand against their West Midlands opponents in 2015, adding a draw at Edgbaston to the innings victory they recorded at Trent Bridge in August.
The Bears were also on the receiving end from the Outlaws in 50 over cricket at Welbeck and in the opening match of the NatWest T20 Blast, with Alex Hales smashing the men from the second city to all parts on both occasions.
There was a victory for Dougie Brown’s side in a rain affected T20 at Edgbaston, and Wessels still hasn’t forgotten suffering at the hands of Warwickshire in previous Championship campaigns.
“They’ve had the wood over us for the last few years, so it was nice to get one back on them,” added Wessels on the thumping August victory.
“It was a different time of the season but it was just as important as it is now. That was quite a big win for us.
“They’ve got a good attack, who all do their jobs well and can take wickets regularly. But we’re confident and looking forward to it.”
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