As his teammates prepare to play Northamptonshire in the T20 Vitality Blast, James Pattinson is attempting to make his long-standing dream of an Ashes return a reality.
The right-armer has been honing his skills for the Green and Golds with both the white and red ball and will now look to take his form into an Ashes summer.
Despite battling a host of injuries throughout his career, the paceman has taken 70 wickets at 26.15 in 17 Test appearances, which included a brace of Ashes clashes in 2013 at Trent Bridge and Lord's.
Pattinson took his best Notts figures of 6-71 against Kent earlier in the summer, and the Victorian feels like he has added to his understanding of the pace bowler’s craft in England this year.
“I’ve been over here three months with Nottinghamshire which is fantastic for someone like me who hasn’t had a great load of cricket over the last few years”, said Pattinson.
“In England, they can play swing bowling well, so if it swings big and you’re not hitting the right areas, it doesn’t really matter.
"For me it’s about trying to get the ball in the right area and obviously if the conditions are right it will swing”.
With the temperature reaching the high 20s over the past few weeks, the weather may play a part in the ball swinging.
But Pattinson is aware the conditions may not always work in favour of the bowler.
“The hard thing about playing in England is if the sun does come out it’s quite challenging to bowl, because your margin for error is quite low," he said.
“That’s why you try to work on your positions at the crease in training to try and work with it”.
It may have been three years since Pattinson was able to test himself at the highest level of red-ball cricket, but the 29-year-old is confident that he would be able to take his game to new heights if selected to head into the Ashes pressure cooker.
“Throughout my career I’ve always tried to crank it up a little bit to the best batters,” he said.
"You always try to get to bowl at the best batters - and bowl well against them.”
*******
Following a bumper crowd of 12,613 for the opening fixture against the Worcestershire Rapids, there are six further opportunities to catch the Outlaws in T20 action at Trent Bridge this summer.