OWAIS SHAH admits he is "excited" to be part of the Essex squad after returning to the Chelmsford fold this week.
The 34-year-old featured in the two crushing YB40 wins against Scotland and Surrey after returning from a stint in the IPL with the Mumbai Indians.
He failed to trouble the scorers in the 125-run triumph over Scotland on Sunday, but smacked 68 from 53 balls – including three fours and four sixes – in the even more convincing win over Surrey 24 hours later.
And he was pleased to be back in the runs for the Eagles so early in his English domestic campaign. "I really enjoyed getting back amongst it and getting a few runs," he said. "It was only my second game of the season after being away and stuff but I was really happy to get into the swing of things so soon.
"I am delighted to get some runs and setting up a decent total which I thought would definitely test the Surrey batting line-up.
"Although scoring wasn't that easy, once you got in, you could score relatively freely and Surrey do boast a very competitive batting line-up."
The Eagles ended up on 312-7 at the Essex County Ground, and after skittling out their visitors for 134, they moved top of Group B.
They already were on course for a competitive total, but when Shah linked up with James Foster for a devastating 3.3 overs which went for 56, the game was already sliding away from Surrey.
Graham Napier then starred with the ball as the home side won by 178 runs, with his career-best 7-32 including four wickets in four balls.
And Shah believes the team are in good shape for the rest of the tournament.
He added: "I'm excited about our future in the campaign. We had a really good performance tonight.
"James and I have both played a fair bit of cricket now, we know what we're trying to do towards the end of an innings, we used our experience.
"Fozzy hits it in really, really funny areas and it's very difficult for their captain to set fields.
"I was more just trying to get him on strike and hit the odd boundary.
"We spoke about our tactics and it really worked nicely against their attack and I was happy with that partnership."
Shah has made a name for himself as a one-day specialist in recent years, but he is still looking forward to donning his whites again when he returns to the LV> County Championship picture against Lancashire next week – as part of the Chelmsford festival.
"I'm very much looking forward to getting back into county cricket and hopefully I'll get into the swing of things and get some runs," he added. Any time you get an opportunity to play in a festival week it's really good fun, good atmosphere, good crowd and we are very well supported here by the Essex crowd."
As well as the IPL, he has played T20 cricket in South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Australia, and while he revels in that part of his career, he is also happy to be part of the squad at Chelmsford and seeing some of the younger players impressing.
He said: "It's amazing! I get to travel everywhere, I get to play cricket in a very fun form of the game, always full houses.
"It's really good fun, but I'm also really excited to be back here with Essex.
"Hopefully, I'll get some runs this summer.
"I'm just enjoying my cricket, it's good to be here, good to be part of a set-up where I've been working with the likes of [Tom] Westley and people like that and it's good to see him come on really well this year.
"I'm really excited to be part of this team for as long as they'll have me."
