MATTHEW Fisher is expecting the experience in Yorkshire’s batting line-up to help young gun Harry Brook push his game forwards.

Brook impressed with 41 and 66 not out in the opening Bob Willis Trophy win over Durham at Emirates Riverside, at times making batting look easy on a challenging pitch.

The 21-year-old struck up an immediate rapport with new signing Dawid Malan, sharing partnerships of 52 and 98 with the England T20 left-hander.

Gary Ballance is another experienced mainstay of Yorkshire’s four-day batting unit, although he missed Durham and will sit out again when they travel to Trent Bridge to face Nottinghamshire tomorrow, as he is not yet fit enough after recent illness.

Instead, Yorkshire will have Jonny Bairstow available for their next two Bob Willis North Group games before he returns to England one-day duty.

Fast bowler Fisher, another star of the Durham win, is good mates with Brook, with the duo having played a lot of Academy and second-team cricket together.

He said: “For Brooky to be in the middle order with some of those players, Mala and Gaz, I think we’re going to see the best of Harry Brook.

“You could see from how they batted in the first innings as well as the second, Mala is really helping him out there in the middle.

“I think they’ll have a good partnership this season and in the years to come.”

Brook has now played 29 first-class matches since debuting against Pakistan A in 2016, scoring two hundreds and four fifties.

He has shown glimpses of brilliance, as he did by polishing the game off at Durham on Tuesday afternoon with four sixes in his unbeaten 66. But his career average of 23.62 needs to go northwards.

“The more years Harry plays, the more experienced he will get,” said Fisher.

“The middle order suits his style of play. He likes to be proactive and play his shots, which you can do that bit more in that position.

“If you can have Gary and Mala in just before you, he’s always going to bat with one of those two.

“He gets on with Gary really well. They are good mates. With Mala, you can see their partnership flourishing already.

“Adam Lyth was saying in the changing room that when he came into the team, he had a really experienced opening partner and then a number three (Jacques Rudolph and Anthony McGrath were both in the team in 2008).

“That helped his batting so much as a young player.

“It’s the same with Brooky. If he can learn off Mala and Gaz, hopefully he’ll do very well.”

Malan showed his class on competitive debut at Durham, scoring 30 and 73, steering the pursuit of 171 alongside Brook.

“Mala’s been brilliant. He’s quite quiet, but he offers a bit of great advice to Steve Patterson when he needs it having been a captain himself at Middlesex,” said Fisher.

“Watching him and Gaz train, they think about things that we would never even think about batting! Their attention to detail is massive.

“They are very similar players, and fingers crossed we can see them both in that middle order soon, which makes it look very solid.

“If we can marry the bowling up with the batting, that’s where you get to the end of the season challenging for titles.

“Andrew Gale has spoken about wanting to win two trophies, so we know this isn’t just a season where we are going to brush it under the carpet. We are desperate to do well and start hitting our straps as a team.

“We’ve gone through transition, and now we want to start winning.

“A winning team needs to get used to winning. Hopefully we can do that over this short period. When you get wins as young players, that drives confidence up.

“With young players comes inconsistency. But we need to stop that.”

Fisher was superb with the ball at Durham, taking six wickets in the match, including a devastating four-wicket burst with the new ball in the second innings just after lunch on day three. Coach Gale described the spell as a turning point.

However, he is not certain to play at Trent Bridge having sustained a side niggle, something Ben Coad did as well. But the White Rose do have cover, with Duanne Olivier fit and available to play his first game of the summer. David Willey is also a possible after England duty.

“It just shows our strength in depth to have those lads coming back into the squad,” said Fisher.

Yorkshire are facing a Notts side who were relegated from Division One of the County Championship last year and suffered an opening round Bob Willis defeat against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge.

They haven’t won a first-class fixture since June 2018, but Fisher added: “Notts have got some great players who will be hurting. They will want to prove a point.

“We definitely won’t be taking them lightly at all because they’re a Division One line-up with some good batting and talented young seamers.

“But if we do what we do well, we’ll have a good chance. Like we always say, four-day cricket is about doing the basics well for long enough. The team who does that will win.

“I’d like to think we did that against Durham, so fingers crossed we can take it on across the whole 20 days we have in the group, top the table and get to that final.”