Durham skipper Smith is yet to score a half-century this summer

Durham captain Will Smith is refusing to blame injuries for his side's slow start to their Championship season.

Durham suffered their first four-day defeat in 24 matches to Notts, but due to two draws, they are now 55 points behind the Division One leaders.

Smith said: "We're not going to make excuses about injuries.

"They don't help, but we believe that the team we have is good enough to win games in four-day cricket and everyone in the squad is good enough to win."

Mitch Claydon, Mark Davies, Graeme Onions, Liam Plunkett and Callum Throrp has all missed parts of the season, while Steve Harmison's first game back was at Trent Bridge.

We're clearly not doing well enough or playing to the standards we've set ourselves over the last few years so we'll have to address it Will Smith

Durham's only Championship victory of the season came against Hampshire and they have drawn with Yorkshire and Essex.

"Where we are in the table now probably reflects the kind of cricket we've been playing," added Smith.

"We'll all be honest enough to realise that we need to put things right and get better individually and if we do that we'll get better as a team.

"We're clearly not doing well enough or playing to the standards we've set ourselves over the last few years so we'll have to address it."

Durham have won the Championship for the last two years and on each occasion Nottinghamshire finished second.

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