Jake Ball is eager to get back on the field and ‘turn the corner’ as Nottinghamshire travel to Essex for the start of a run of Specsavers County Championship Cricket.

The game at Chelmsford comes just two days after the Outlaws succumbed to a 115-run defeat against Somerset in the Royal London One-Day Cup last four, but the right-armer feels the quick turnaround can only be a positive.

“Obviously a defeat in a semi-final hurts, but the good thing about county cricket is that your next opportunity is never far around the corner,” said Ball.

“We’ve got a great chance now to get back on the horse and put in some good performances."

This week’s game signals the start of an eight-match run of four-day fixtures, with the next three games taking place away from home.

Back-to-back games in Essex and on the Isle of Wight, versus Hampshire, will keep Steven Mullaney’s side on the road for an extended period, but Ball feels this could help accelerate an upturn in the side’s fortunes.

“We’ll all be travelling to the games together and spending a lot of time with each other, but I think this has come at a good time for us," said Ball. 

“It’ll give us the chance to work intensively as a team to turn it around and set a platform for the rest of the season.”

After the opening brace of red-ball fixtures, Notts sit in 5th place in the Championship table, having taken a draw and a defeat from the visits of Yorkshire and Somerset respectively to Trent Bridge.

And Ball feels that having belief is the key to getting over the line in the forthcoming fixtures.

“In the first two games we played a lot of good cricket, but we also did some things that weren’t so good, so we just have to be more consistent," he said.

“It’s a case of retaining our belief and of knowing that we are a good team and we can turn this form around.”

The red-ball resumption sees Stuart Broad return to the Nottinghamshire squad, and Ball has seen enough of his county and international teammate in recent weeks to know the 32-year-old is in excellent shape to return to competitive cricket.

“Everyone knows what Stuart can bring to us with his international quality – we saw that in particular against Somerset earlier this season, when he took five wickets on what was a pretty placid pitch," he said.

“He’ll also bring a lot of energy into the dressing room. We’ve seen him around over the last few days, and he’s ready and raring to go.”

Nottinghamshire have named a 13-man squad for the trip to Essex.

James Pattinson is missing with a slight niggle, while Paul Coughlin remains absent after inuring himself in the One-Day Cup clash against Worcestershire.

Luke Wood, meanwhile, has rejoined Northamptonshire on loan for their next four County Championship fixtures.

Nottinghamshire squad (from): Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Matthew Carter, Zak Chappell, Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett, Luke Fletcher, Jake Libby, Tom Moores, Steven Mullaney (c), Chris Nash, Samit Patel, Ben Slater.

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