I HAVE really enjoyed being back playing T20 over the last few weeks – I didn’t realise how much I'd missed it, writes Will Gidman.

It’s the obvious things. Playing in front of bigger crowds, diving around the outfield and the reaction of the crowd to every stop or good bit of cricket.

I also love the intensity of it – the pressure on every ball.

I presumed that as the four-day schedule is so tough – with games pretty much every week – that I wouldn’t be playing any T20. Last time I played regularly was a few years ago and I wasn’t particularly successful so this feels like a second chance.

Back then I overcomplicated it so this time around I have just kept it really simple. I have allowed myself to have a lot more freedom with what I am trying to do.

Rather than worrying too much about the result I am just trying to run in and hit the pitch as hard as I can and change it up with a bouncer or slower ball if I need to.

As a team we targeted the T20 as a competition we wanted to do well in. We decided we wanted to enjoy it and go out and express ourselves without too much fear of failure. I think that showed last Friday against Sussex and in our win over Kent the week before.

The boys are full of confidence at the moment and hopefully we can keep our momentum going.

We are probably slight underdogs but we still want to try and finish in the top four and make it through to the quarter finals.

We’ve got some big games coming up – especially Somerset at Taunton on Friday but we are going there in a positive frame of mind.

After that we head up to Cheltenham for the Festival. The players all look forward to Cheltenham and we have two T20 games there this year – Surrey on July 18 and Essex on July 20.

It is always a slightly different challenge playing at Cheltenham as the outfield is a bit quicker and the boundaries are smaller. But we have played a couple of games on TV recently where they bring the boundaries in so they are challenges we are used to.

The atmosphere is always fantastic at Cheltenham and the crowds always get really into it. It will be great fun to be part of it.