McManus says Northants batters have to back their skills as they head to Lancashire
"I don't think it's about batters proving themselves, I think everybody knows how good each other is, and it is just about staying calm and keeping on backing your skills."
Vice-captain Lewis McManus is backing Northants to come back strongly from their opening weekend defeat at the hands of Kent when they make the trip to Old Trafford to take on Lancashire in a four-day game that starts on Friday (11am).
It was a disappointing opening performance from the County, as they suffered a 145-run Rothesay Championship Division Two defeat at Wantage Road, with the game over in little more than two days.
The main reason for that loss was two poor performances with the bat from Northants, who were rushed out for just 143 and 114, with both innings lasting just 75.4 overs combined.
The County now travel to the north west to take on a Lancashire side that was relegated from the top flight last season, and this week bolstered their bowling attack with the loan signing of England fast bowler John Turner from Hampshire.
West Indian fast bowler Anderson Phillip could also be in line for his Red Rose debut, and it means it could be a testing few days for a batting line-up that needs to bounce back with some runs after their first-match flop.
Asked how they are going to go about that, McManus, who was dismissed for scores of 12 and four against Kent, told Steelbacks TV: "I don't think it's about batters proving themselves.
"I think everybody knows how good each other is, and it is just about staying calm and keeping on backing your skills.
"We know we were under par as a batting unit, and also at times with the ball, so we were nowhere near where we want to be in all aspects of the game.
"So it is just about going back to the basics and doing them for long periods of time.
"The group we have got, with the bat, the ball and in the field, we know that if we perform to our potential we will win a lot of games of cricket."
McManus was also asked what the message has been from the Darren Lehmann and the rest of the coaching staff this week, and he added: "The message has been to stick to what we have been working on.
"We had a really good pre-season, on and off the pitch with our gameplans and how Darren wants to play, and everybody has bought into that.
"It is now about being consistent with that and sticking to it, and we will hope to put that right this week up in Lancashire."
Northants have named a 12-man squad for the match at Old Trafford, with the only change from the squad named to face Kent seeing loan signing Calvin Harrison, a leg-spinning all-rounder from Nottinghamshire, replace Tiaan Louw.
Lancashire have named a 15-man squad, which inclues Turner and Phillip, as well as England off-spinning all-rounder Tom Hartley who is set to make his first appearance since breaking his hand on international duty in Australia in January.
Australia batter Marcus Harris will be aiming to build on a fantastic start to his Lancashire career, after he hit scores of 138 and 52 in their opening draw with Middlesex.
Lancashire are captained by former England opener Keaton Jennings.
Northants squad v Lancashire: Luke Procter (Capt), George Bartlett, Justin Broad, Liam Guthrie, Calvin Harrison, Rob Keogh, Dom Leech, Lewis McManus, James Sales, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Raphy Weatherall, Saif Zaib
Lancashire squad v Northants: Keaton Jennings (Capt), Tom Aspinwall, Tom Bailey, George Balderson, George Bell, Josh Bohannon, Marcus Harris, Tom Hartley, Matty Hurst, Michael Jones, Anderson Phillip, Ollie Sutton, John Turner, Luke Wells, Will Williams