Seam bowler Dillon Pennington is playing with confidence and soaking up his Trent Bridge experience so far, as he looks to add to his wicket tally down in Taunton.
Nottinghamshire are on their travels for the first time this season, facing Somerset on Friday (11am start) as they look to carve out their first victory of the year.
Pennington is named amongst a 13-man squad to travel down to the West Country, with New Zealand international batter Will Young linking up with the side ahead of the third round of the Vitality County Championship campaign.
The seamer has played a critical role in Notts’ bowling attack thus far and, with six wickets to his name after two matches, Pennington has been pleased with his fast start to life at Trent Bridge.
“It’s been nice to have the trust from Hass (Club Captain, Haseeb Hameed) to go out there and perform, and Pete (Moores) has been great in trying to lift the pressure away from that,” he said.
“It’s been a great couple of weeks for me, and nice to play the first two games at Trent Bridge against good opposition and against my old team.
“We’ve got a fantastic environment here, it’s an environment which I think I’ll be able to thrive in. After the first couple of games I really feel at home.”
With Hameed naming two spinners in the lineup against Worcestershire, and in the absence of Brett Hutton and Dane Paterson, Pennington was handed a more leading seam role alongside Luke Fletcher, a task he was ready to take on.
“It’s a big confidence boost for me that Hass wanted me to take more of the responsibility,” Pennington said, “It was great playing with Fletch for the first time - that was really exciting, he’s an excellent cricketer to play with and he depressurises the situation.
“Team selection may change and you might have a different role to play, but I feel prepared for whatever role Hass wants me to take on.”
Batter and fellow new arrival Jack Haynes too enjoyed a strong start in Green and Gold, clocking 77 in his debut innings against Essex.
Pennington admitted he has high hopes for Haynes, with whom he has shared a great bond since their days at New Road.
“It’s so good for him to get some runs early doors for some confidence,” he added, “He’s looked good all winter and he’s a serious player, so I think he’s going to get plenty more this summer.
“It’s exciting to see him bat out there and for him to be my team mate, as we’re really good mates from our Worcester days.”
The April climate has so far brought plenty of rain-induced delays, whilst also presenting teams with challenging conditions in-play.
Pennington was therefore quick to praise the approach taken to preparing the pitch for Notts’ opening two fixtures: “While the outfield’s been soft, I think the two pitches we’ve created so far have tried to be results pitches, which is positive.
“If you look around the counties there have been a lot of draws so far, we’ve tried to create pitches which will get results. If the rain hadn’t come on day four I think the Worcestershire game would have had a result too and we had a good chance of being on the right side of that.”
The opening rounds of the County Championship elsewhere saw few results with batters often dominating proceedings.
The bowler touched upon relishing the challenges brought by the two-game appearance of the Kookaburra ball, and the need to think outside of the box.
“It’s been different and quite difficult with the Kookaburra - we’ve had to try and find different ways to take wickets at different points in the game.
“Over the last couple of weeks I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I would have to bowl when it’s flat,” he added, “I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of the Kookaburra, but the Duke’s ball will even the games out - I expect that we’ll see a lot more results this week.”