I THINK it's fair to say it's going to be difficult for us to win the County Championship title from here – but there is still a lot of cricket to play and anything can happen.

We still have leaders Essex to play twice, including in our next match at Scarborough at the start of next month. Win there and we're right back in the mix.

We're still optimistic but we need to play some good cricket, which we haven't done consistently so far this season. We haven't really been good enough all year, particularly on the batting side of it.

Nobody can really get any big runs and I'm not sure why that is because we're all hitting loads of balls and putting the extra time in. It's certainly not through a lack of effort. Hopefully it will change quickly.

It certainly didn't help bowling-wise that we had Liam Plunkett and Ryan Sidebottom go down injured against Somerset this week. When it's the best new-ball bowler in the country who goes down, it's a massive thing.

The period of T20, which started against Nottinghamshire at Headingley last night, means there's a break from the four-day stuff and I think that's come at the perfect time. We can refresh, come back strong and go again.

I'm unsure how the next few weeks are going to pan out for me, having been left out of the squad for the first two Blast matches – Notts and at Derbyshire today.

It's quite frustrating because the red-ball stuff isn't going too well for me at the minute and to hit some white balls in T20 would maybe free me up a little bit and put me in a bit of a better place.

But it's up in the air at the minute. Whatever it is, I'm just going to keep my head down and play some cricket somewhere. There are some second-team fixtures about in Championship and T20 cricket, starting next week, that I'll probably feature in.

Immediately, I'll have a couple of days off to clear my head. Hopefully I can forget everything that's gone before, play well and score some consistent runs.

I was in brilliant form at the start of the year, having come back from New Zealand. I got 70 in the second innings against Hampshire away and have got starts in the other games as well.

But with not being involved in all of the one-day cup games, I didn't really play much proper cricket for a month or so. Then, coming back in, it probably affected my flow a bit.

Even after that, I've been getting in and not going on. A few dodgy decisions and bad shots and all of a sudden your season's two thirds of the way through. It's quite frustrating but I've got to keep trusting myself.

Throughout a career, whether as a batsman or a bowler, you're going to go through ups and downs. You've got to try and stay consistent as a person and it generally sorts itself out.

I'm always very optimistic about going forward. I'll probably hit a lot of balls, go to the gym and go back to the basics of my game to be ready for the next Championship match if selected.

As much as I will be doing everything I can to turn things around, I also have to make sure that cricket doesn't consume me. If you worry about it too much, it can eat you up inside.

I have other interests and will do some other things outside of the game. Fingers crossed, it will all add up to a quick return to form.