Ashar Zaidi has offered to move up the order to help kick-start Essex’s stuttering Royal London Cup campaign ahead of a run of three successive home games.

Essex have lost two of their three 50-over games on the road so far, despite Zaidi coming in at number seven and contributing 139 runs this week with a top score 82 at Gloucestershire and an unbeaten 57 against Hampshire.

But one win from those three matches leaves Essex slightly off the pace in the South section and needing to impress at Chelmsford, starting with the day-night game against Somerset today, and continuing against Surrey on Sunday and Glamorgan on Wednesday.

“I would love to bat up the order,” said Zaidi, who has spoken to captain Ryan ten Doeschate and head coach Anthony McGrath about the possibility. “I can go in at number four and I feel I’m in good form and the higher I go up the order, the more overs, the more time I’m given to bat, the better. The strike-rate I go at gives me a big chance to get a big score.

“As we’ve been doing in T20 cricket, when the coach and the captain feel it is favourable for me going up the order, then generally I’ve been in within the first six or seven overs. So I’m sure when they feel the opportunity is there, they will make sure I get that opportunity.

“What we are missing at the moment is one guy to go on and score a big hundred. As we saw in the first game against Middlesex, Tom Westley got a hundred and everyone played around him and it was a very easy chase.

“In the last two games that’s not been the case. I think one of our top five or six need to stand up and score that hundred.”

With wickets tumbling after openers Adam Wheater and Varun Chopra established a platform, Zaidi has been coming in with between a dozen and 20 overs to go and been able to play himself in before exploding in the latter stages.

“When I went in on Wednesday, I think there were about 12 overs left, so the situation demanded that I just stay around, get a feel for it and support Ravi [Bopara], who was the main batsman at the time.

“It’s a massive, massive phase in the context of the season. These games come thick and fast and you don’t have time to think about whether you’ve lost or won. By the time you realise, the next game is almost there. But there are three games at home and that gives you the edge. Everyone is raring to go.”