IT’S been a funny start to the season in the Championship, we won out first match but since then every single match has been affected by the weather.

We’ve had worse weather in the south than in the north, and I think that’s allowed a few teams to steal a bit of a march on us.

But I’ve been quite pleased with our four-day cricket because we’ve never looked like we could lose a match.

And with a bit more luck with the weather we could be sat here after six games with three wins and three draws, which would have been a good return.

And now we’ve got Owais Shah back from the IPL, and we’ll have Ryan ten Doeschate back in 10 days for the rest of the season, so that will be a big boost for us.

HOPING RAVI WILL BE FIT TO PLAY THE DUTCH

RAVI Bopara is making progress with his quad injury.

He was not ready for this game with Derbyshire but we’re targeting him to be fit for the Netherlands game.

He was disappointed to miss the Test but hopefully he will be fit and playing well enough for Essex to be considered again soon.

I think if he had been fit he would have played the first Test match against the West Indies and batted at six. He’s been very much in the selectors’ thoughts for one-day cricket but I know Ravi wants to become a regular Test player and that’s what he is aiming to do.

FULL COLUMN IN THURSDAY'S ECHO