Here is a quick preview of the round one games in the County Championship Division Two. Newly relegated sides Durham and Worcestershire will be looking to get back to Division One at the earliest opportunity.
Derbyshire v Worcestershire
Third place Derbyshire missed out on promotion last season, so will be looking for a fast start against relegated Worcestershire, who finished bottom of Division One.
Derbyshire Match Squad: Abbas, Aitchison, Andersson, Bashir, Came (c), Chappell, Dal, Donald, Guest, Haydon, Jewll, Montgomery, Morley, Reece.
Worcestershire Match Squad: Libby, Waite, Singh, Roderick, Edavalath, Taylor, D’Oliveira (c), Hannon-Dalby, Gibbon, Lategan, Ali, Hose, Finch, Brookes
Durham v Kent
The other relegated side Durham host last season’s bottom team Kent, as both sides will want to improve on last season’s disappointments. Kent only won two championship games and were stranded at the bottom by 29 points.
Durham Match Squad: Aldridge, Bedingham, Clark, Gay, Lees (c), McKinley, Minto, Parkinson, Potts, Raine, Rhodes, Roach, Robinson
Kent Match Squad: Bell-Drummond (c), Benjamin, Compton, Crawley, Dawkins, Dudgeon, Evison, Milnes, Muyeye, Northeast, Singh, Stewart, Stuurman
Middlesex v Gloucestershire
Both of these sides had average seasons last year, with Middlesex finishing in fourth, and Gloucestershire finishing in sixth. Improvement will be the main focus this season for both sides.
Middlesex Match Squad: Du Plooy (c), Cracknell, De Caires, Geddes, Gohar, Helm, Higgins, Holden, Hollman, Morgan, Robson, Roland-Jones, Sharma
Gloucestershire Match Squad: Bancroft (c), Bell, Williams, Taylor, van Buuren, Phillips, Bracey, Miles, Taylor, Charlesworth, Price, Boorman, Ahmed, Hammond
Northamptonshire v Lancashire
Northamptonshire finished last season in seventh place, whilst Lancashire ended their season in fifth. Jimmy Anderson captains Lancashire this season, so he will want to see improvement from last season.
Northamptonshire Match Squad: Procter (c), Bartlett, Conway, Guthrie, Harrison, Kimber, McManus, McSweeney, Miller, Sales, Sanderson, Vasconcelos, Zaib
Lancashire Match Squad: Anderson (c), Bailey, Balderson, Bell, Bohannon, Coughlin, Flintoff, Hartley, Hurst, Jones, Singh, Singh Dale, Stanley, Wells
