Essex play their third match in the 2015 NatWest Twenty20 Blast campaign when they meet Glamorgan at Cardiff on Friday evening before they move on to Bristol to face Gloucestershire 48 hours later.
he Eagles are still seeking their first win of the season in the competition following defeats by Hampshire and Surrey in the space of 24 hours last week but they have been boosted since then by the return of influential all-rounder Ravi Bopara following conclusion of his stint in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Essex also hope to have both Mark Pettini and New Zealand all-rounder Jesse Ryder available for both fixtures this weekend. Batsman Pettini missed the opening two Twenty20 matches having suffered a hip injury in practice whilst a hamstring problem prevented Ryder from taking his place in the side defeated by Surrey last Saturday.
Tom Westley is still ruled out with a broken thumb although he is targeting a return to action within the next two weeks
Despite the two losses, Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate remains in positive mood. I'm not overly concerned about the two defeats at this stage but I must say that the way we've played is a slight concern, he admitted.
We wanted to get some positive results quickly in this competition and so we need to get some wins on the board soon but as I say, it was the way in which we lost our first two matches which has been particularly disappointing.
We certainly don't want teams to pull ahead of us in our group and finding ourselves playing catch-up, our aim is to secure a place in the quarter-finals as soon as possible and then take things from there.
Being without Ravi Bopara, Mark Pettini and Tom Westley for both matches and then having Jesse Ryder also missing the Surrey game obviously wasn't helpful but there are no excuses for the manner of the defeats.
Although things were different last year in the Twenty20 when we ran up a sequence of wins in the group section, I think that Essex is actually known for generally starting slowly in all competitions before we find consistency and our best form.
We are under pressure in the two games this weekend to get some positive results but having said that, it doesn't help anyone to start panicking. What we will do is go back to the drawing board, assess where we went wrong, look at our strengths and then take our game forward in a positive manner.
Having some experienced players available once again can only help that process.