Gary Ballance column: We are confident that, with a good performance in our friendly against Lancashire last week, we have learned from the mistakes we made during the early stages of our Championship defeat to Sussex.

We were chasing the game after the first few sessions and it was always going to be hard to bring it back from getting bowled out for 96.

I just think it was one of those days when we played a few more shots than we should have, and we can’t make any excuses. We have got to play better.

We still managed to play some very good cricket in the game. We bowled well in patches and fought hard during our second innings with the bat. And we were not a million miles away from saving the game in the end.

It was the opposite to last year when we didn’t want any rain! A little bit would maybe have got us out of it.

The first innings in a game is very important. You can either set things up or, in our case in the first match, leave yourself struggling.

We have spoken about that and how conditions are going to be different in April and May, how it is going to swing and seam around a bit more. You have to accept that you are going to play and miss a bit more, and that you will get a lot of good balls. The runs that you get will have to be earned.

Durham are always a good side and The Riverside is one of the toughest places to play because it does swing and seam a bit more. But that does give you opportunities to win the game if you can bat well.

We obviously want to win the game but we can’t look too far ahead. We need to get ourselves into the game and in a position to win it. We need to do well early on and then go from there.

It has given us a massive lift to have our three England players back together in the dressing room during the last week or so.

Jonny Bairstow scored a fantastic hundred against Lancashire and Brezzy bowled well in his first match back after his elbow operation as well. On a slow wicket, he was bowling with very good pace.