PLAYING cricket in LV County Championship Division One is so much different to life at the lower level and we must adapt to it quickly.

We have to start learning about how this form of cricket is played — otherwise it is going to be a long, hard season.

I truly believe the squad we have here at Worcestershire is more than talented enough to cope with Division One.

But the issue is how we carry ourselves as a team and how we go about our team performances.

It is impossible for batsmen to get a century every time they go out to the middle, just like it is impossible for bowlers to get five-fors in every innings.

Sometimes, you have to be prepared to battle it out and grind out a result.

You can’t blow sides away in Division One like you can in Two — there is just too much quality in this league.

We need to be more streetwise than we have been. We have to get ourselves in a position where we can’t lose the match and then go for the win.

I know that might sound a bit negative but that is what happens in Test cricket.

You have to be hard-nosed and never give an inch. In Division One cricket, you can’t think too far ahead — it is hour by hour, session by session.

Against Sussex we managed to get ourselves in a position to salvage a draw with two brilliant innings from Moeen Ali and Daryl Mitchell — but we lost and there can be no excuses.

We were light of a few runs in the first innings and they posted a huge score of 620.

Sussex showed us how to create something out of nothing — they are not a better side than us talent-wise but are just more experienced at Division One cricket.

Every time the ball hit the middle of the bat they were moaning and groaning — they put on a bit of theatre and got us under pressure.

The wicket we played on offered our bowlers very little — it was slow and flat.

They had a little googly bowler in Piyush Chawla who was getting lbws, while our bowlers could get very little.

Sussex also exploited the first morning of the game very well and then adapted to the conditions once the wicket flattened out.

All in all, it has been another tough week for us and that is something we have to address.

Today we face Yorkshire and we have to show that we have learnt our lessons from last week.

Yorkshire are playing some very hard cricket and that is something we have got to do too.