Warwickshire: England duo Trott and Bell reinforce weakened Bears

Warwickshire again have their two England stars Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott available for this week's County Championship clash against Middlesex.

Also on the plus side, captain Jim Troughton (shoulder) and Rikki Clarke (hamstring) are fit to return to a 13-man squad named by coach Dougie Brown.

However, international calls have left the county champions weakened.

The Bears have lost Varun Chopra, Chris Wright and Chris Woakes to England Lions duty against New Zealand.

They will be in action at Grace Road, Leicester, on Thursday, but in the meantime, Bell and Trott will be busy preparing for next week's first Test at Lord's by looking for runs in what will probably be their only first-class appearance of the summer at Edgbaston.

While their inclusion will more than compensate for the loss of Chopra and injured opener Ian Westwood, the Bears' main concern this week, on the back of Sunday's opening YB40 defeat by Kent, is the bowling department.

Already without Keith Barker (side strain) and Oliver Hannon-Dalby (broken arm), the loss of Woakes and Wright means call-ups to a squad of 13 for untried youngsters Tom Allin and Recordo Gordon.

With fellow rookie Tom Milnes also in the squad, that puts a lot of weight on the shoulders of Clarke and Irishman Boyd Rankin, who proved his return to fitness after a foot injury last week with an energetic performance on a lifeless track in the Bears' drawn match at Hove.

Warwickshire squad v Middlesex (from): J O Troughton (capt), W T S Porterfield, I R Bell, I J L Trott, L J Evans, T R Ambrose (wk), T W Allin, R Clarke, T P Milnes, A Javed, J S Patel, W B Rankin, R O Gordon.