WORCESTERSHIRE will make their long-awaited return to Specsavers County Championship Division Two action with a trip to Derbyshire today (11am).

And captain Daryl Mitchell has urged his teammates to “kick into gear” as he sets his sights on a promotion push going into the second half of the season.

Worcestershire are fourth in the table, 20 points off leaders Essex, but have not played in the four-day format since losing by five wickets to Gloucestershire almost three weeks ago.

Although enjoying success in the NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup recently, Mitchell says he is desperate to get his whites back on.

“It has been quite a long break,” he said. “The last outing was a great game of cricket against Gloucestershire.

“Although we fell on the wrong side of the result, we played pretty well and I am looking forward to getting back in the whites today.

“From a player’s point of view, it is not a bad thing to try to block off the competitions as it has been nice to focus on white-ball cricket for a short period of time.

“But it is not a long turnaround from playing white-ball cricket on Saturday to playing with the red ball today, so we will have to adapt quickly.

“We need to make sure we are in the right mindset and our technical aspects are there ready for the four-day challenge.”

After their Kent opener was a washout, the County drew with Gloucestershire, Essex, Glamorgan and Sussex.

Steve Rhodes’ men’s wait for a league win ended on May 25 when they beat Leicestershire by seven wickets before losing to Gloucestershire.

Mitchell insists his side’s results must improve if they are to achieve their ambition of returning to Division One straight away.

“It is a format we certainly enjoy and promotion out of Division Two is something we are targeting, so we’re looking to win plenty of games to do that,” he said.

“We have played some really good four-day cricket so far this year but have only got one win and a lot of draws, so it is important we hit the ground running.

“There is a lot still to play for in this campaign but we really need to kick into gear going into the second half of the season.”

Second-from-bottom Derbyshire aim for their opening victory in the competition having drawn five and lost two.