England Test stars available for County Championship games

England have given their senior players the chance to play at least two county matches before the summer's first Test.

Captain Alastair Cook, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott will all be available for two County Championship fixtures.

Nick Compton, Joe Root and Chris Woakes have the chance to play three matches and Graham Onions four.

England face New Zealand in the first Test at Lord's on 16 May.

Bell, Compton, Prior, Root and Trott have also been freed to play at least one Yorkshire Bank40 match.

A second tier of players - Jonny Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Monty Panesar, Samit Patel, James Tredwell and Chris Tremlett - have been made available for all county cricket until further notice.

That would suggest they are not currently expected to feature against the Black Caps, although with Bairstow and Panesar currently deputising in the Test side for injured duo Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann, that may change.

Swann (elbow) and Pietersen (knee) are joined on the sidelines by Tim Bresnan (elbow), while Eoin Morgan will be made available to Middlesex upon his return from the Indian Premier League.