As Nottinghamshire bid to return to winning ways with a trip to Chelmsford to face Essex, Ben Slater is relishing a challenge against the current Division One leaders.

“There’s only seven, eight, nine points between the top five, so a win takes you right towards the top again because of how tight it is,” asserted Slater.

“There’s really not much in it, so we’ve definitely got the intent to try and get a positive result this week.

“It’s a nice ground, and a nice set-up. The crowd’s really close to you there, so it should be a good atmosphere and obviously the weather’s set nice too.

I think it should be a good four days - four full days - of cricket, and I’m looking forward to it!”

Slater retains his spot in a 13-strong squad for the trip to East Anglia, which also features the return of spinner Farhan Ahmed.

“It’s important that we show what we’re about after last week, and although we did get back to what we do on day three, I think the damage was done by then,” said Slater.

“Everyone is keen to go down there and put in a performance to show why we’ve been so good recently. I think doing that will be on everyone’s agenda.”

On a personal level, Slater remains confident with where his own game is, as he retains eighth place in the leading run-scorers’ charts in Division One.

“I’m feeling good. I started the season pretty well with the amount of runs I was scoring, and obviously I didn’t get many last week, but that can happen as a batter,” he said.

“I was disappointed with that, but that’s the life of a batter, so hopefully I can score a few more down there this week.”

As for Slater’s wider status at the club, he remains a firm favourite and a senior head, with his stauts reflected by the awarding of a testimonial year for 2027 last week.

“I’m very proud and humbled to have been awarded a testimonial year by the club,” said Slater.

“The last two lads to get one were Fletch [Luke Fletcher] and Mull [Steven Mullaney], so it means a lot!”