James Tredwell has backed Sam Northeast to burst out of his poor early-season form and make a big score, adding that he’s not even considered dropping the opener.

The 23-year-old has made just 90 runs combined in six Championship and two YB40 innings so far this season with only one score of more than 15.

But Tredwell backed the opener to bounce back from his struggles to rediscover the form which saw him score more than 950 runs last summer.

Tredwell said: “Sam is a high quality player and taking him out of the line-up has not entered our thoughts.

“He’s come through bad situations before and when young players have done that you know they’re not far away from getting back.

"He works really hard in training and talks to people about his game and that is the best way out of it.

“I have no doubt, and we’ve all got faith, that he’ll come back with a big score soon.”