It’s absolutely imperative that you get some wins on the board early in the Twenty20 competition in order to qualify for the knockout stages, which a number of the lads have already said we are desperate to do.

With the change in format of the group phase, it means that there is less margin for error with only ten matches to play, whereas playing 16 last year at least gave teams the chance to recover from a slow start.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many wins we will need to qualify for the quarter-finals at such an early stage, and with the weather meaning there are a lot of No Results around, but I would have thought that seven should suffice.

It’s obviously disappointing not to be included in the squad for the first part of Twenty20. I feel I’ve performed on the pitch this year, which is all I can do. It’s out of my hands really.

I bat in the middle overs when the field’s out, which can be the toughest time in Twenty20. But I feel I’ve got as good a record as anybody in our team in terms of average and strike-rate.

It’s a pretty similar situation to the one after the first couple of games of the Championship season when I got left out.

You’ve got to take it on the chin, and I might get chances further down the line as I did then. I feel I’m in good form, so it’s just a matter of training and being ready to go if and when that chance comes.

It sounds like the crowds up and down the country haven’t been great during the last week, which doesn’t really surprise me with the European Championships being on. It was always going to be tough to attract people with the weather being terrible and up against the football.

Twenty20 attracts a different kind of audience by and large, probably including a lot of football watchers. It may be that the crowds improve if England don’t do so well.

I’m sure there will be a great crowd for Friday’s one-day international at Headingley against the West Indies though, and hopefully they will see both Tim Bresnan and Jonny Bairstow in an England shirt.

Brezzy’s been fantastic for the last 12 months in international cricket, as we all know. Jonny is just starting out in his England career. He may have had a tough baptism in the Tests but he’s done really well in the one-day forms and it would be a massive thrill for him to play for England on his home ground.