Captain Kirstie Gordon returns to the squad as The Blaze prepare to face Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford in the Metro Bank One Day Cup Women’s competition tomorrow.

The spin-bowler – who has been sidelined for the opening games of the season with a back injury – has been thrilled to see her teammates place themselves top of the table after winning four of their five matches in the 50-over competition.

And she’s relishing the opportunity to be back on the field.

“The girls have been going really, really well and I’m looking forward to getting out on the pitch with the group," she said. 

"It’s been a great start to the campaign, especially with some new faces in group, people have settled in well and settled into different roles as well.”

In her absence, England’s Tammy Beaumont has been stand-in Captain, scoring back-to-back tons within the last week as she led from the front.

“Tammy’s done an excellent job; I’ll be looking to pick up where she’s finished off with that.”

Maintaining momentum is key, as she reflects on a stickier start to the season in the same competition last year.

“It’s really important to start well in this first block, we have a few more 50-over games and then we leave that block. We’re top of the table at the minute and we want to stay there.

"We want to be in as good a position as possible for when we return to 50 over games after the T20 block.

“Last season we didn’t get off to a great start, and in the end we were one result away from making that semi-final – that probably taught us a lot as well.

"Even though things don’t go your way, with four teams now making semi-finals you’re never actually out of the running.

"We want to be the team that people are chasing at the top, and we know that if we go through tricky patches, we can come out the other side.”

The skipper feels her job is made simpler thanks to the side brimming with experience and leaders, including the likes of Georgia Elwiss and Kathryn Bryce.

“It’s so helpful for Tammy and for me as well, having so many different voices that you can turn to that can support you on the pitch. It makes for a really good team environment," she said.

“Having people with leadership experience and who show that in different ways is really important – it’s not just about on the pitch and the tactical decisions, it’s about people showing their leadership qualities in different ways around training, preparation and recovery.

"It’s about how we can all grow as a group and continue to build that culture as well.”

Also contributing to that culture is new Head Coach Craig Cumming, whom Kirstie and her teammates believe has fitted in very well.

“He’s been really clear on how he wants us to play the game," she said. 

"Obviously when we’ve been successful there’s plenty of good things that we just all want to keep building on and not change too much.

“50-over cricket is a game of cat-and-mouse and who can hold out longer at times. I think we’ve done that a lot better this season, we’ve been thinking about how we can build pressure and keep the field up with dot balls, whilst not letting the other team off the hook.

“I think tactically we’ve gotten better through these first five games too and we’ve really found our groove.”

Gordon feels the side have made incremental improvements each game, since their opening game defeat to tomorrow’s opponents, Lancashire.

“There’s definitely some things we’ve spoken about," she said.

"We were probably a little bit off it tactically in the field in that game and we got off to a brilliant first 25-30 overs with the bat and let it slip.

“But what we’ve seen in our more recent games is how valuable our middle-lower order can be in contributing to bigger scores.

“The game at Warwickshire is the best example of that, and when you’ve got someone like Tammy in such great form, hopefully we can post big scores and chase down big scores a little bit better.

“Like I said we were a little bit off the mark, a little bit rusty, but we’ve had four pretty solid games now since then where I think we’ve got 5 or 10% better each game actually, so we feel really good going into tomorrow’s game.”

Watch The Blaze v Lancashire from 10.30am tomorrow on Trent Bridge Live.