Daryl Mitchell knows the importance of an improved batting performance when Worcestershire return to red ball cricket in the LV = County Championship clash with Middlesex at Uxbridge starting tomorrow.
Worcestershire skipper Mitchell admitted the two day reversal by Warwickshire at New Road was "a bitter pill to swallow" with too many players guilty of falling victim to "soft dismissals" in innings of 243 and 80.
It was only the second time Worcestershire have failed to top 300 in their seven first innings in the Championship this season.
Mitchell said: "You will be confident of a good response? We've got to. We've got no choice. It was bitterly disappointing. I thought we batted poorly in both innings really. There were too many soft dismissals, particularly in the first innings.
"We had a decent start at 100-1 and we should have posted a more meaningful total and then in the second innings, we were very soft and we got dismissed.
"I can't quite put my finger on why we were that bad, I'm not sure but there were some pretty poor dismissals.
"We've got to try and keep working hard and bounce back at Uxbridge.
"We said before the start of the season that we were going to have some tough days and the second one against Warwicks was a particularly tough one.
"It was bitter pill to swallow but obviously we've been beaten by the better side over the two days and we just have to try and learn from what they did well and there are plenty of areas we can improve on as well.
"We will do plenty of hard work in the nets and then come back again."
One of the plus points was a maiden Championship 50 for 19-year-old Joe Clarke.
Mitchell said: "Clarkey is going to be a good cricketer. He is only 19 and I thought he played very well for his 50.
"Unfortunately he was one of those soft dismissals as well and we could have done with him going on.
"But a few of us, myself, Moeen, made the same mistakes, we got caught mid-wicket and that was soft as well.
"One of those guys in the top six that gets in needs to get a big score and unfortunately we didn't do that."
