Surrey will go into any match like this as favourites but Warwickshire without a win yet this season will want to see if they can compete here over the course of the next four days.

No Mo Abbas for Hampshire, he’s ill. And off spinner Felix Organ comes in for his first game of the season.

Whilst it’s a blow for Hampshire that Abbas is not fit you can’t help but think it’s made a potentially difficult selection decision a lot easier.

I’m told this wicket is expected to turn a little bit which makes Organ’s inclusion understandable.

For Durham, Peter Siddle is playing his first game. They have not included an extra spinner as they already have Callum Parkinson and Colin Ackerman.

Surrey fans will be wondering how they have yet to take a wicket, but Warwickshire have put on 50 from the opening 10 overs, with 10 boundaries along the way.

Warwickshire's opening duo of Rob Yates (29*) and Alex Davies (21*) have been very positive indeed. It's led to the flurry of boundaries but also several near misses.

Maybe this is the blueprint for how teams need to slay the dragon?

Rory Burns has seen enough and brings on Jordan Clark in place of Kemar Roach.

No wickets for 30 minutes across both divisions, then three in three minutes!

The bowling change makes the difference as Luke Wells pokes at one from Dane Paterson, well held by the quality young fielder that is Calvin Harrison at second slip.

(Yes he did drop one at Edgbaston, but that was a real rarity from the young spinner.)

Josh Bohannon joins Keaton Jennings who is 6*.

Change of bowling already for Kent as Beyers Swanepoel is withdrawn after three overs which cost him 14 runs.

Nathan Gilchrist, Kent's hero of Old Trafford with 6-24 in the first innings last week, is first change.

Jake Libby moves to 19 after cutting his fourth delivery for four. His third boundary.

Rob Yates nudges past 400 for the season with his fourth boundary of the morning, once again off Kemar Roach. He has 21 from 22 balls. Alex Davies has 12 after a lovely late glance through backward point.

Roach's first four overs have gone for 24.

Seven boundaries, one three and two singles for the visitors in the opening seven overs.

Joe Clarke is keeping again, not Tom Moores by the way.

No Matt Montgomery or Luke Fletcher for Notts, both have been playing for Notts 2s.

Fletch scored 99 against Yorkshire 2s last week, then took 4-26 in the last innings against Dom Bess and co.

Having said Hants could do with him returning to form in my preview, Muhammad Abbas misses the game through illness.

No John Turner yet and Scotsman Brad Wheal has not been sent out on loan to Gloucestershire yet this year so gets a game along with James Fuller and Kyle Abbott.

Currently they are all putting their feet up watching their batting openers Ali Orr and Fletcha Middleton making hay whilst the sun shines.

County cricket feels like it has certainly come together and been united over this past week or so in the wake of the tragic news.

It was good to see both teams really acknowledge that moment on an emotional morning here at Canterbury.

The players are wearing black armbands in memory of Josh Baker.

Rob Yates has ridden his luck so far but this is a glorious late cut off a slightly wide one from Kemar Roach which races away to the deep backward point rope. The fourth boundary so far.

It actually took 28 balls before Yates and Alex Davies actually swapped creases this morning, Yates picking up the first single of the match.

That moment got to me and I think one or two of the players as well, maybe a bit more than we might have thought it would.

It's such an emotional thing, even before the applause, that minute or so before when everybody was silent was quite touching.

It's been a tough week or two or 10 days or so for the Worcestershire players and this is their first opportunity I guess if you look at it positively to put in a performance dedicated their former team-mate Josh Baker.

It was a lovely gesture and the response from the cricket family from all of the counties has been very comforting I know to Josh's family and to the members at the club.

There's a real feeling out there today, even from the Kent supporters, that I think that the game, not just Worcestershire, but the game has lost somebody.

Image source, Rex Features

Tributes were paid to Worcestershire spin bowler Josh Baker around the grounds before play got started this morning.

It is the Pears' first game since the 20-year-old's death on 2 May, a day after taking three wickets in a Worcestershire second XI match.

He played 47 games in all formats for Worcestershire, taking 70 wickets, including two County Championship matches this season.

Image source, Rex Features

Lancashire are bottom of Division One, 16 points from safety and 47 beyond table-toppers Essex.

But their two sturdy left-handers have started well enough on a hard, bouncy track against Dillon Pennington and Olly Stone.

Former England opener against former England opener here, will one of Keaton Jennings or Stone get another chance in international cricket?

Rob Yates survives another huge appeal from Kemar Roach. The last shout was glove, this one was bat.

Another poor shot, leaning back in his crease and taking an almighty off-balance swipe at a square cut.

The cordon is convinced he's feathered a top-edge to Ben Foakes and go up in unison but the umpire didn't see, or hear, anything.

Debutant Beyers Swanepoel takes the first over from the Pavilion end but his radar is a little off and Jake Libby tucks in with a couple of cuts to the deep cover point fence from a pair of wide ones.

Kemar Roach takes the new ball at the Oval and it's an eventful one to say the least.

There's a big appeal for a caught behind as Rob Yates wafts the bat at the second ball of the morning but the umpire is unmoved.

A nice cut backward of square then finds the rope but there's a play and a miss from his knees from the fifth ball, a wide one.

The over finishes on a high for Yates with a nice drive down the ground for a second boundary.

Nervy stuff from the Bears opener, but they are off and running.

Gareth Roderick and Jake Libby head out into the sunshine to start the Worcestershire innings, with Aussie paceman taking the opening over from the Nackington Road End.

Track looks conducive to batting. A good toss to win, you'd think.

Peter Siddle, the former Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Essex and Somerset bowler is making his fifth first-class debut for an English county, but he does not take the new ball as Ben Raine is joined by Matt Potts.