VARIABLE - not the bounce at New Road, but Worcestershire's form over the spring time of the season.

Three championship matches away from New Road and three losses. This after going through last year unbeaten until the last game of the season. And that against Northants, this week's opponents.

Why? In simple terms, too few runs and wickets which are proving too expensive to take.

In more detail, each game lost has resulted from a substantial partnership which we have been unable to break.

Natural

Each of these partnerships has featured left handers and it is interesting to reflect that Worcestershire's batsmen are all right handers so not much chance to practise there for the bowlers.

Kabir Ali is almost fit again, a natural wicket taker, his return to action has been eagerly anticipated.

He will add energy and competitive edge to an attack which has struggled to contain opponents and, of course, the best way to do that is to take wickets.

Someone has to step up and take those crucial wickets, be a strike bowler in short.

That's the batter's view of the bowling side, but neither have there been enough runs from a batting order which, depending on which way you look at it, either has a long tail or features a lot of all rounders.

Australia's success has been based on specialists doing their job well. The bits and the pieces are not adding up to enough at the moment.

Combine the one day results with the four day ones - one of the suggestions from the ECB's recently disbanded Domestic Review Group - and Worcestershire are performing mid-table.

Add Hicky's one day runs to his four day runs and he's got a 1000 runs before the end of May.

A more realistic modern achievement? Yes, but both ideas are in the realm of fantasy, sadly.

The reality is Worcestershire are creaking uncertainly and the upcoming game with Northants is crucial. Which it should be and which suggests the desired intensity for our domestic cricket.

Intensity? Yes, please and good pitches. Don't bemoan high scores on true pitches as some have been moved to do recently.

Pace, spin and concentration - Test Match qualities - are the ones which evolve in such an environment.

Northants incurred a pitch penalty last year, and there will be some edge lingering from last year's encounter.

Usman Afzaal has moved from Notts to relaunch his career under new captain David Sales, one of a clutch of maturing English batsmen who are scoring big runs and contributing to that sense, observed by the Kiwi tourists, that England's domestic cricket is sharpening up.

Relegation

Worcestershire's needs to, first against a team who are currently relegation rivals over four days, and then against table-topping rivals Leicestershire over one day at Oakham School.

Such a confusing scenario makes some sense of the ECB's idea to harmonize four and one day cricket into one table.

Confusing or not, Worcestershire's requirement is clear - two wins please.