HAVING had that experience of playing for England for just one game against Ireland last week makes me want it even more.

It was great to be involved in the squad and to get a game. It was disappointing not to get any runs, though these things happen. You are going to have bad days as a cricketer, but they can only help make you better.

The main thing was that we got the win in the end, and hopefully I’ll get another chance to score a few runs some day.

Thankfully, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara played well to score hundreds and get us over the line against a side who have beaten some big names.

My dismissal was one of those where I was in two minds whether to play at it or not. I ended up playing at it a bit half-heartedly and nicking it through to the keeper off Tim Murtagh. It was disappointing because had I been a bit more committed, I probably wouldn’t have nicked it.

These things happen, and I’m not going to dwell on it too much. All I can do is come back to Yorkshire and try and score as many runs as I can for the rest of the season.

Cricket’s not always going to be plain sailing, and you are going to have these challenging days. But I still feel like I’m batting well. I’m not worrying about it too much. I’ve just got to move on and keep working hard.

In terms of our Championship challenge at Yorkshire, we are still very confident of winning the league with three games to go.

We know Durham are a good side who will always be playing on result wickets up at Chester-le-Street, so them beating Sussex last week was no surprise to us.

We are in second place and 15 points behind, but we don’t really want to concentrate on what they’re doing – we just want to be concentrating on what we’re doing. Hopefully we can go to Sussex this week and win there, which will open things up again.