Alex Lees column: Adam Lyth, my opening partner in the Championship, is going from strength to strength and keeps racking up those runs.

It was another fantastic knock which brought him a hundred on Saturday against Middlesex and he had to battle through a pretty tough morning with the ball seaming around.

He is a good asset for us against the new ball because if you give him a bad ball, he will put it away. He is very pleasing on the eye too.

If England had to make a change at the top of their Test match order, I don't think you can look beyond him at the minute. You've got to go for the in-form batter.

He's passed 1,000 runs and I don't think there's anybody else you can select. He's also scored his runs in Division One and that's massively in his favour.

He had a fantastic season a few years ago (2010) but couldn't really back that up. But he's 26 now and maturity can come with age. Hopefully he can keep piling them on.

Although I haven't really thought about it, I'm sure he'll be in the eye of some sort of England selector and won't be far away from something, whether it's this summer or in the winter.

Switching formats, we've played some really good cricket and some poor cricket in Twenty20 and we were disappointed on Friday because we thought our score of 147-6 was enough on that wicket to beat Birmingham.

Unfortunately, Laurie Evans played a superb knock to get them home.

Nottinghamshire are a very good Twenty20 side, which they've proved over the last few years. But we think we're a good side and we believe we have the quality to overcome anything they throw at us on Friday night in a game we're likely to have to win to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Even though Aaron Finch has struggled through the majority of the competition, he's a top player.

I think the wickets have something to do with that. He's been caught off the back of the bat three times in recent games. The best pitch he played on at Old Trafford, he got 80-odd and won us the game.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if he came to the party on Friday because he's a big-game player. He's certainly hitting it all right in the nets!

Gary Ballance is proving what a superb player he is, having scored another Test hundred at Lord's.

I know he was in the papers last week after a night out, although he's a young man who's allowed to go out and enjoy himself.

Maybe it wasn't the way he would have wanted to portray himself but you can't argue with what he's done on the field. That's the best way to put any criticism behind you.