Red ball gold, white ball blues..

After a remarkable two-month hiatus, the barbs are back out with a vengeance on social media. 

The success in red ball cricket so far this summer has perhaps given false expectation for the white ball competitions. 

The red ball cricket has been characterised by a clear game plan, a team that is well aware of individual roles, strong team spirit, excellent catching and intuitive captaincy. Everything, in fact, that is diametrically opposed to what I have seen in the white ball team. 

I think the major reason for frustration is that it has been patently clear that the focus of recruitment has been for success in the Vitality Blast. Samit Patel, Ross Whiteley, Pat Brown, Nye Donald, Mohammad Ghazanfar.. these are all players whose reputation within the game has been largely built on the short format. I accept Samit has had a long and successful career in all forms of the game, but the point still holds. 

It is still possible for Derbyshire to qualify for the knockout stage. But then it is still possible for me to become world light heavyweight boxing champion. I tend to be optimistic, but also realistic and I cannot see eight wins from the next eleven games. Especially when two of them will be against a Lancashire side that will likely have Buttler, Livingstone, Salt and Mahmood restored to it. Not to mention one at Durham, where our record of success hardly precedes us.

So where has it gone wrong?

Team selection hasn't helped. Nor has injury. Nye Donald had little cricket before he was tasked the dual role of leading our batting effort, as well as that in the field. I don't think it was sensible or fair and it was no coincidence that, shorn of one of those responsibilities, there was a return to form with the bat last night. The frustration, as it always is with Nye, is that once he presses the green button there is no safety valve. He has the measure of the quicks, why bother to size up what the spinners can do? He had 50 in six overs, striking the ball as cleanly as anyone has ever done in Derbyshire colours. A hundred was there for the taking, but sometimes you need to come down a gear or two, reappraise the situation.

Being honest, I remain to be convinced that we upgraded in swapping Tom Wood for Nye and I will go to my grave convinced Tom got a raw deal from the county. If we were in the business of handing out white ball contracts, he could and should have got one.

Despite his innings against Northamptonshire, Samit is batting too high. He is another who only has one way of playing now. For all the brilliance of his hitting in that match, let's not forget he could easily have been out a couple of times before he got going. He, more than anyone should know you can play aggressive cricket without trying to hit every ball to Chatsworth..

Conversely, Ross Whiteley is too low. He has looked in good touch and the problem is his reputation as a big-hitting finisher. Why not give him more time at the crease, so when he does it, his eye is in, or maybe doesn't need to try to turn a sow's ear of an innings into a silk purse?

David Lloyd is too high, maybe lucky to be in the side. He hasn't got many runs behind him, isn't one of the faster fielders and isn't often likely to bowl in this format. To pluck a name at random - there is another, later - Mitch Wagstaff bowls spin, would score no fewer runs and would be an asset in the field. 

Brooke Guest hasn't been playing. The first warning bells sounded for me when we went into the competition with a mystery spinner and a part-time wicketkeeper. It was ill-thought and detrimental to the fielding, which Brooke leads by example. If I was picking a Derbyshire side this season, I would insert Jewell, Madsen and Guest, then fit the rest around them.

Talented as he clearly is, I was always wary of placing too much responsibility on the shoulders of Mohammad Ghazanfar. Can you expect a 19-year old to lead your attack? Would we have similar expectations of Harry Moore? His absence has been felt, although at least one of the few positives has been the emergence of Ben Aitchison in the format.

Not that this should be a surprise. Ben can bowl a line and length better than any seamer in the club. The virtues of doing so are regularly highlighted, no more so than by the admirable Ben Sanderson against Worcestershire last night. 6-8 were his figures, because he puts the ball in the right place on a regular basis. If Ben Aitchison's back holds strong, he becomes another first name on team sheet for me.

Ghazanfar has emerged into a strong Afghanistan side where he can blend with others and perhaps go under the radar. Here, tasked with opening the bowling, he has tended to drop short, seemingly bowl quicker and struggled with his approach. Spinners shouldn't bowl no balls and he did last night, also stopping in his run up a couple of times. He also seems nervous in the field - who wouldn't be, thrust into that level of responsibility at such a tender age? 

We are also missing Blair Tickner on the field. He is fascinating to listen to in the commentary box and I have no doubt his sage counsel to Wayne Madsen is a factor in our red ball success. He is also prepared to mix it with the opposition and that kind of bullishness carries along teammates.

Finally, the effectiveness of Zak Chappell and Pat Brown has been considerably reduced. I don't think Zak has looked at his best all summer with the ball, while Pat, having been used as a strike bowler in red ball cricket, appears to have lost the variations that made him so good with a white ball. His line and length have been awry and he must have set some kind of unwanted record by twice conceding the winning runs so far with a wide.

That's all without mentioning the absence of Luis Reece. They may indeed be resting his hamstring, conscious of how important he has been to the red ball team with bat and ball. But he would have been another left-hander and a good bowling option, as befits a bloke top of both averages in the longer form of the game. He has been a talisman this year and a pre-tournament interview in The Cricketer suggested that he hoped to be involved in this competition. 

Finally, the captaincy. There is so much more to this role than merely putting a different bowler on at either end. That's why the number of good captains are rare. I think Samit Patel has been a very fine cricketer, but I haven't seen anything in his captaincy to make me think he was wrongly overlooked for this key role. Perhaps his swapping Ghazanfar from end to end hasn't helped a young lad a long way from home and I just get the impression that in Samit Patel and Mickey Arthur we have two strong individuals, not necessarily always on the same page. 

Is it any surprise that we have disappointed? Yet a side that is stronger than the sum of its constituent parts has been outstanding in four-day cricket. There has been a clear game plan, total focus and an eleven that has battled for one another to a man. 

Maybe it is unrealistic to expect a relatively small squad to compete on all fronts. Yet the area of perceived lesser investment has been the success.

Lessons to be learned, for sure.