Nottinghamshire have no time to dwell on their T20 Blast exit as they head down to the Kia Oval to take on league leaders Surrey on their return to County Championship action tomorrow (Wednesday 29 August).
Notts sit third in Division One despite defeat to Hampshire in their last red ball game and will also be looking to make amends for the last encounter with Surrey at Trent Bridge where their opponents ran out winners in three days.
Seamer Harry Gurney says that Notts are looking to do more than just consolidate their position in the top three over the course of the final four County Championship games of the season.
“We’ve not really got time to mope around because we’re straight back on the bus to go down to the Oval to start Wednesday,” he said.
“We’ve got four really big games coming up and we’ve still got an outside chance of winning the championship.
“We’re all really keen to finish in the top three and I also think amongst the squad there’s a lot of boys with personal targets; I know Fletch (Luke Fletcher) and I are both after 50 wickets and I’m sure there are some batters that are going for 1,000 runs so there’s plenty to play for still.”
Since their last outing in the County Championship, Notts have strengthened their batting line-up with the addition of Ben Slater.
The 26-year-old opening batsman joined from Derbyshire initially on loan before signing a three-year deal at Trent Bridge and Gurney knows what the side’s new signing is capable of.
“It’s great, we probably needed another body or two in the squad so to have Slats on board for the last month is great,” he said.
“He’s a very good player – we’ve played against him for a number of years and we’ve all seen some of the stroke play he’s got.
“We’re looking forward to him having an Outlaws shirt on from now on and hopefully he fits in well and gets some good early scores to settle himself.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, the left arm quick is aware that Notts must be more consistent in their remaining red ball games.
The Robin Hood County made a good start to life back in the top division but have wobbled in recent games.
However, with the focus now solely on the four game format, Gurney believes that Notts can get back on track.
“I think we’ve either been really good or really bad when you look at the championship and pretty much across the board in all cricket this year which is frustrating in some way,” he said.
“We need to be more consistent, but we’ve got no other format to concentrate on now, no jumping between formats and no excuses in that regard.
“We’re all focused on these last four championship games and hopefully we can perform consistently throughout.”
Nottinghamshire will be without batsman Chris Nash, who will require surgery to treat the shoulder injury he sustained in the Vitality Blast match against Birmingham Bears in July. The 35-year-old will miss the rest of the season.
Nottinghamshire squad to face Surrey (from): Jake Libby, Steven Mullaney (c), Ben Slater, Riki Wessels, Harry Gurney, Luke Wood, Matt Milnes, Luke Fletcher, Matt Carter, Samit Patel, Tom Moores (wk), Billy Root and Kraigg Brathwaite.
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