THOSE of us in the top four at Durham have not got a start yet, but we’re only one score away from getting our confidence back and we’re desperate to get going.

On Saturday, I was caught off the first ball I’ve middled this season.

It was heart-breaking, but it shows you need a bit of luck. It’s a tough game mentally because as a batsman you only get one chance.

Keaton Jennings showed at the end of last season that he is capable, but now he’ll be wondering whether he’s good enough. At least I know I have done it, but there comes a time when you can’t do it any more. I don’t feel I’m there yet, so I won’t be following Michael Di Venuto’s example by walking away.

He had played almost 100 more first-class games than me and had reached a stage where he couldn’t field and bat for a long time without it hurting.

I’ve gone up a place in the order to No 4 at a time when I’d rather be going the other way. But it’s what the team needs because it’s very hard for Ben Stokes to bowl as many overs as he does and bat in the top four. I want to contribute, but I also want to see the younger members develop and it’s great to see Stokes and Scott Borthwick becoming such invaluable players. Leg spin is not an easy art to learn, especially when we don’t often play on turning pitches, but Scott is taking slip catches and his hundred under pressure at Edgbaston was a real plus.

We also saw a good spell of reverse swing from Ben on Friday afternoon when things were a bit flat.

His pace helps him to do that and he got it to go both ways. If he’d had a bit of luck he would have got both Ambrose and Clarke in that spell and that would have kept us in the game.

The quick bowlers have had to do nearly all the work and have put in an unbelievable effort. But we have to make some runs to back them up and give them a rest.

IT will be interesting to see how Surrey perform this season after pushing the boat out to bring in Graeme Smith as captain, plus Ricky Ponting in mid-season. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that we have to worry about our wage bill after exceeding the salary cap and they apparently don’t.

There have never been any massive egos here, but we stepped out of line in that department, stood up and faced the consequences. It’s disappointing that we were docked points and I understand the ECB felt we shouldn’t sign an overseas player.

The finances seem to be improving, but our mindset is that we’re not going to have an overseas man and we’ll make the most of the squad we’ve got.

It would be great to have someone like Hashim Amla, but I don’t think the South African board would want him to come.

He took over from me as captain of Natal six years after making his debut, aged 16, against England A. He was always a fast learner and now he’s ranked No 1 in the world.

We also have to remember that a player like that can be called back at any time and it can be disruptive.

We need someone to come for two years. I would have loved to see Mike Hussey come back, but he retired from international cricket because he was spending too much time away from his family.

So he’s not going to want to leave them behind to spend a summer here.

We’ve spent money in the last few years on overseas players for Twenty20 cricket.

The club can’t be blamed for that as it’s a great way to market the game and if they get people into the ground they are doing their job.

We always want to win in any competition but our strength has been the fourday game and perhaps we could have spent the money filling a hole for the full season. But players like Herschelle Gibbs and Ross Taylor add a bit of freshness and it’s been beneficial to rub shoulders with them.

It’s a shame that we haven’t quite got on to the next stage in T20 cricket, but we are at a slight disadvantage in having to travel further than any other county and conditions away from home are very different from Chester-le- Street.

It’s like playing in two different countries and means we have to change our game plan.