I’M clocking up a fair few miles in the car at the moment, but that is the life of a professional cricketer and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

Last night, it was a second tri-series match for England Lions against Sri Lanka A at Northampton before I’m back down in Southampton to play for Hampshire in the T20 Blast against Middlesex on Friday night.

Then it’s over to Canterbury on Saturday to play on Monday and Tuesday for the Lions against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka A before heading back to Southampton for for the One-Day Cup match against Kent.

It’s a busy time, but it’s fair to say it’s better than an ordinary job and you won’t find any complaints here.

What didn’t go so well personally was my performance for the Lions against Pakistan A on Tuesday.

It was a good win for us and Northamptonshire’s Ben Duckett played exceptionally well, scoring an unbeaten 160-odd in our win.

I didn’t have the greatest of games - something that hadn’t happened to me in quite a while.

My bowling was a bit off and a few too many runs went off it, but we play a hell of a lot of cricket and the great thing is I had a chance to put it right virtually straightaway last night.

The one-day game does allow batsmen to go after it a little bit more, but when you are in form, it is good to keep playing, so I’ll just get back to it.

I approach the England Lions the same away as I do with Hampshire, but it just shows that when you are playing against good players, you have got to be on top of it all the time.

The same was true of the first Test between England and Pakistan last week.

Both sides could have won that game going into the last day and, in the end, Pakistan emerged fairly convincing winners.

England should have Jimmy Anderson back for the Old Trafford Test this week so hopefully that will make a difference for them.

My Hampshire and Wiltshire colleague James Vince also had a useful knock (42) in the second innings at Lord’s last week.

I’ve spoken to him briefly recently and he’s really enjoying it.

It’s a huge honour to play Test cricket for your country and hopefully he’ll get another chance in the Test at Old Trafford and go on to make a big score.