Four slips in place as England's Zak Crawley faces up to Ben Sanderson.

It's a positive start by the opener who pulls with authority for four and two balls later tucks it away off his hip for another boundary.

Several members of the England Test squad are in action again for their counties. The selection was debated at length yesterday, but you can still have your say on whether Key, Stokes & co have got it right.

What do you make of Ollie Pope batting at three against the Kiwis? Who is going to bowl along with Anderson and Broad? And perhaps more importantly, have the new England brains trust missed someone out?

Send us your thoughts.

Shan Masood v Stuart Broad at Trent Bridge.

The Pakistan opener collects a single off the England pacemen's opening delivery and watches from the other end as Billy Godleman takes strike.

That's 827 for Masood now - just 173 to go to reach the magic 1,000.

An early boundary at Headingley but it's a very lucky one for Warwickshire opener Alex Davies. There's a bit of swing for Jordan Thompson and a thick edge flies away between the slips and gully.

A prompt start at all seven grounds - very good news indeed.

And it's a big day for 17-year-old Rehan Ahmed, who is making his Championship debut for Leicestershire against Worcestershire.

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Somerset have been the Jekyll and Hyde performers of Division One so far with three defeats followed by two innings victories over Warwickshire and in last week's West Country derby over Gloucestershire.

Craig Overton and Jack Leach, both named in England's squad yesterday play. Leach should be confident after taking eight wickets at Bristol in his last game.

The Cider Boys have decided to bat, but as ever, they will face a tricky morning session against the Hampshire trio of Keith Barker, Kyle Abbott and Mohammed Abbas.

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It is 34 years since Graeme Hick became the last batter to score 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May - helped by an astonishing innings of 405 not out against Somerset at Taunton.

Derbyshire's Shan Masood hasn't produced a score of that magnitude this season - but two double centuries have helped him amass 826 runs at an average of 118.

The left-hander has only been dismissed for under 50 on one occasion - 42 against Glamorgan - and potentially has two innings against Notts at Trent Bridge to reach four figures.

Don't write off Yorkshire's Harry Brook (758) either - but Sean Dickson of Durham (750) has a hamstring injury and is out of contention.

We've got all the action as it happens for you over the next four days, courtesy of our BBC commentary teams.

Five Live Sports Extra are at Taunton for Somerset v Hampshire and full coverage of the other six games will be provided by local radio.

Choose a match from the audio promos at the top of the page to tune in and we'll keep you up to date with events everywhere else with regular text updates.

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It's cloudy here at Old Trafford for the opening morning of this Championship game where Lancashire could go top above current leaders Surrey with a strong victory.

James Anderson plays his fourth game of the season before he rejoins the England squad ahead of the three-Test series with New Zealand beginning two weeks' today. At 39, his fitness is on a different level to some of his younger colleagues.

He is going to be bowling first up as well against former England captain and one of his best mates, Sir Alastair Cook, as Essex have won the toss and decided to bat.

It was reported earlier in the week that a new batch of Dukes balls has been despatched to the various counties, external because a number of teams were unimpressed with the performance of the ones they have been using.

It is certainly true that there have been a lot of runs scored this season - Durham skipper Scott Borthwick has described the quality of the balls as "shocking" - so will the change make for more even contests this week?

Stay with us over the next four days to find out.

Image source, Rex Features

The start of England's Test series against New Zealand is only two weeks away, and the Championship games starting today offer the chance of valuable practice out in the middle.

Nine members of the squad have also been named by their counties, including skipper Ben Stokes, James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

The odd one out is pace bowler Matty Potts, with Durham deciding to give him a rest, instead of an opportunity to add to his 35 Championship wickets - 11 more than any other bowler - at Lord's, where he hopes to make his Test debut.

There is no Will Young in the Northamptonshire side against Kent - the batter has already linked up with the New Zealand tour squad.

Division One

Old Trafford: Lancashire v Essex

Essex won the toss and will bat

Northampton: Northamptonshire v Kent

Northants won the toss and put Kent in

Taunton: Somerset v Hampshire

Somerset won the toss and will bat

Headingley: Yorkshire v Warwickshire

Warwickshire won the toss and will bat

Division Two

Lord's: Middlesex v Durham

Middlesex won the toss and put Durham in

Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire

Nottinghamshire won the toss and put Derbyshire in

Worcester: Worcestershire v Leicestershire

Leicestershire won the toss and put Worcestershire in

It's a proud day for Callum Parkinson as leads Leicestershire against Worcestershire as their new red-ball skipper - and he's already won the toss.

We wish him all the best as he tries to bring about a change in fortunes for the Foxes, who have no wins in six games and have managed only eight batting points so far.

Image source, Getty Images

With batting conditions remaining benign, Somerset and Durham were the only winners in week six of the County Championship.

Tom Abell's 142 helped Somerset to an innings win in the West Country derby at Bristol, while paceman Matty Potts produced match figures of 11-101 as they beat Glamorgan by 58 runs.

Division One leaders Surrey had to settle for a draw against Kent despite piling up 691-7 declared, while 1,165 runs were scored for the loss of only 14 wickets between champions Warwickshire and Northants.

Keaton Jennings hit 238 for Lancashire in the Roses match, but 147 by Joe Root helped Yorkshire also remain unbeaten.

Here's how the top of each division looks following six rounds of matches.

Image source, .

Image source, .

First Saqib Mahmood was ruled out for the rest of the season, now Jofra Archer.........what a shame.

There was a lot of wet stuff about overnight, with thunder and lightning for extra emphasis, but if the groundstaff have managed to complete mopping up work at the seven grounds, it looks like we'll have a decent day ahead.

For localised information, use the search box on the BBC Weather site.

The opening phase of this season's County Championship is almost over.

Following the seven matches starting today, there will be no further red-ball cricket until 12 June as this summer's T20 Blast takes centre stage.

We've been very lucky with the weather over the first six weeks of the season - when was the last time we had so few rain interruptions? - and let's hope it stays that way.

Welcome to our coverage. Play starts at 11:00.

Image source, Rex Features