Essex return to their County Championship campaign on Tuesday when Nottinghamshire visit The Cloudfm County Ground, with Anthony McGrath’s side searching for their first red-ball win of 2019.
McGrath has named a 13-man squad for the first home match of the County Championship season, which includes opening batsman Nick Browne, who didn’t feature in any of the Royal London One-Day Cup games.
McGrath insists that his squad cannot afford to dwell on the One-Day Cup campaign, saying: “We are all disappointed with how that competition went but we have to draw a line under it, there are five months left of the season and we have to concentrate on the Championship and the Vitality Blast now.
“We now have a block of eight Championship matches ahead of us and so we really have to focus on red-ball cricket. I thought we played really well in that match against Surrey and if we take that form into the game on Tuesday, I feel we will be really competitive.
“Division One cricket is really tough, but I know that at our best, we have all the attributes to match anyone. We’ve been really strong in the County Championship over the last three years and everyone is going into these next few weeks in a confident mood.
“Hopefully, we can start with a positive result this week and get on a roll because, as we’ve seen over the past few years, once we get on a roll then we are difficult to stop.”
Essex squad to face Nottinghamshire:
Ryan ten Doeschate (captain) (27)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Nick Browne (10)
Alastair Cook (26)
Sam Cook (16)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Rishi Patel (12)
Jamie Porter (44)
Matt Quinn (94)
Peter Siddle (64)
Tom Westley (21)
Robbie White (wicket-keeper) (4)
