EVERYONE at Worcestershire is on a high having gained promotion last year and we are full of optimism for the campaign ahead.

It’s great to be back in LV= County Championship Division One with the big boys and testing ourselves against the best players and teams in the country.

I was proud to lead the players out in Division Two but it’s an exciting time of year now, especially more so in the club’s 150th anniversary.

To walk out at New Road after all the greats there have been in the past gives you a real buzz.

Having county champions Yorkshire at New Road at the moment is great.

They generally bring a decent following with them so I’m sure, if the weather stays nice, there will be good crowds and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.

It’s probably a good time to play them, with a few guys away on England duty, but it’s still going to be a formidable challenge.

Their seam attack is probably still the best in the country, with Tim Bresnan, Ryan Sidebottom, Steven Patterson and Jack Brooks. It’s a phenomenal seam attack and we’ll have to be on our game.

But we have talented players too and the good thing with having a young squad is there’s massive room for improvement as well.

Having watched the pre-season games, there are plenty of guys who have definitely jumped up another level and improved again.

If you have got several doing that, then it’s going to make the team better as a collective unit.

There have been some really good signs in pre-season from Tom Fell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Richard Oliver and the young guys who have not played in Division One before. I am expecting them to kick on, improve and be a force at this level.

With the ball, Jack Shantry and Charlie Morris got 50 wickets apiece in 2014 so we would like similar from them.

If we can keep Gareth Andrew on the park, I’m sure he will get close to that as well and we’ve got our overseas spinners too. We’re looking strong in all departments.

Personally, I was obviously pleased with how I did last year, contributing to the team and performing well.

As a senior player, that’s what you’ve got to do and what I’ll be looking to do again. I want to try to get as many runs as I can and score a hundred every time I bat.

As for my England chances, it all comes down to what you do out on the field for your county, so if I can keep getting 100s and perform as well as I did last year in Division One, then it will be hard to go unnoticed.