BECOMING a father seems to have had a really positive effect on my batting, writes Chris Dent.

My son Sonny is now four months old and I have found that when I get home I am straight into my responsibilities as a dad and not thinking so much about cricket.

To see him smiling when you get through the door, you just forget about everything else and focus on him rather than worrying about batting.

The 268 against Glamorgan in the final match of last season was my first hundred at Bristol and before that I always felt I had struggled a bit at home.

I think I found it easier playing away, when you are staying in a hotel and you have more of a set routine.

But getting that big hundred has given me the confidence that I can get big scores here.

I haven’t really made any technical changes this year. I have tried to focus on trying to bat long periods and rather than be happy with scoring a hundred, I want to try and make big hundreds. It is the scores of 150-200 that make the big difference to the team and have a real impact on a game.

It has been a great start to the season but it has only been three games and I won’t be getting ahead of myself – there are still 13 matches left.

In the back of your mind you always have the ambition to try and play for England but I know there are a lot of people ahead of me and I need to score runs consistently – not just this season but year on year, which is something I haven’t always managed to do.

One of the highlights of the first three matches was being out there when Pasty (Liam Norwell) made his maiden hundred against Derbyshire.

When he got into the 90s I was more nervous for him than I am when I get there as I couldn’t do anything. I tried to make sure he made good decisions and was telling him to wait for the bad ball but I was hoping he would just smash a couple of sixes and get it over with as quickly as possible.

The lads were all so happy for him and hopefully it will give him the confidence to kick on and establish himself as a reliable number eight batsman that can chip in with a few 50s each year.

We have had some good spells but also been through a few tough periods with bat and ball in the first few matches but I think that will stand us in good stead going forward.