JAIK MICKLEBURGH is looking forward to staking his claim for a regular spot in the Essex first team.
The 23-year-old was brought back into the squad for the narrow penultimate-ball defeat to Lancashire last week, having not started the season.
And today he will open the batting with Tom Westley once again as the Eagles take on Glamorgan in Cardiff.
He sees this as a big opportunity that he needs to take.
He said: "I was disappointed to not start the season, but I went back to the second team, scored runs and have deserved my place in the team. That was my goal.
"I'm playing well and got off to a fairly decent start.
"Now it's a case of pushing on from that and I'm looking to post some big scores.
"This is definitely a big season for me and to be given the opportunity to come back into the team against Lancashire was great.
"I will bat wherever I am put, but I was pleased to get off to a decent start and I'm looking forward to this week now."
Speaking on the coach on the way to Cardiff, Mickleburgh explained that he should enjoy a good opening partnership with Westley, mainly because they know each other inside out.
He added: "I played the second half of last season with Tom and we formed a good partnership.
"We are living together this year as well, so we have kind of started to feed off each other.
"We speak a lot more about gameplans and how we are going to approach certain situations.
"We get on really well and it's nice to be opening with someone you trust and we have gained that."
In their third season in LV> County Championship Division Two, Essex are desperate to win promotion back to Division One, and Mickleburgh believes they have what it takes, despite two defeats in their opening four games
One of these came after a declaration against Lancashire last week that came back to haunt them as they lost in the final over of the match.
He said: "I have been away with the second team for three weeks, but the way the boys have played and the atmosphere around the place, we have got a great squad to challenge for promotion.
"Sometimes you have got to take small risks [like declaring against Lancashire] and if it had paid off we would all have been heroes, but it just wasn't to be.
"It was a positive move to do what we did and we just have to move on quickly now."
