Ricardo Vasconcelos and Emilio Gay will start proceedings for Northants.

Middlesex captain Toby Roland-Jones will bowl first, to Vasconcelos.

A change of skipper for Notts at the The Oval with Haseeb Hameed leading the side in the absence of Steven Mullaney, who has a side strain.

Happy birthday to Surrey paceman Dan Worrall, who turns 32 today - but he can put his feet up for a bit as they are batting first.

Brett Hutton has the new ball for the visitors.

Umpires Neil Mallender and Graham Lloyd are in the middle.

Ben Raine has the ball, bowling to the other Ben - Charlesworth.

Chris Dent is at the non-striker's end.

Bad news on the injury front for Kent who are missing leading run-scorer Daniel Bell-Drummond, who made an unbeaten 300 in his last appearance at Northants, and leading wicket-taker Wes Agar.

Sam Hain has 46 more runs than Bell-Drummond from two fewer innings and is in the Bears line-up as is Chris Rushworth, Division One's leading wicket-taker with 37. Glenn Maxwell makes his first class debut for the visitors.

Agar is absent for the hosts after claiming 21 scalps so far, with Arshdeep Singh and Matt Quinn the only front-line seamers in the Kent attack. Harry Finch comes into the side after a glut of runs in 2nd XI cricket.

Warwickshire will seek to close the 13-point gap to second-placed Essex, who have played a game more, while Kent will look to at least maintain their 21-point advantage over second-bottom Middlesex, who have a game in hand.

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A new round of County Championship games, and as usual we have ball by ball coverage of each one, courtesy of our BBC local radio teams.

Choose a commentary stream from the links at the top of the page and we will keep youy in touch with events elsewhere with regular text updates.

Really a must win game for the visitors, who sit at the bottom of the Division One table on 39 points after four innings defeats.

Batter Justin Broad makes a Championship debut for the visitors, coming into the side in place of Alex Russell, who played in the last round at home v Kent.

One change for the hosts - with Stephen Eskinazi coming into the team, replacing Luke Hollman.

Mike Taylor
BBC WM

Warwickshire’s team shows four changes from the last Championship game, the defeat at Chelmsford a fortnight ago.

Dan Mousley’s hand injury sidelines him, but Sam Hain is available after a hamstring injury. Hasan Ali has responded to the call from the Pakistan selectors, so with Glenn Maxwell still around after his stint in the Blast, he steps in as the overseas player.

Although he is a white-ball player by repute, he did make seven Test appearances for Australia, scoring a hundred in India.

Dom Bess has gone back to Yorkshire to be loaned out again, so Henry Brookes replaces him, and Oliver Hannon-Dalby is back in the red-ball side, favoured to Jake Lintott, who is the man omitted from the travelling 12 named yesterday.

Kent won the toss and have first chance to bat on a sunny morning, with a shortish boundary on one side.

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It's the time of the season when some teams look to freshen things up with new blood.

Seventh-placed Notts take on Division One leaders at The Oval, having drafted in New Zealand batter Will Young for three matches as they look to put more distance between themselves and the teams below them.

Durham are looking a good bet for promotion, but with one or two injuries in the squad, they will give a debut to paceman Migael Pretorius against Gloucestershire, his first taste of county cricket.

Fellow South African Ryan Rickelton acquitted himself well for Northants last summer with 539 runs in four Championship games, but he is now with Yorkshire, having been signed on a short-term deal as cover for absent skipper Shan Masood.

Image source, Rex Features

Runs have been hard to come by for the ninth and 10th placed teams in the Championship First Division up to this point.

Middlesex have a 12-point advantage in the table, but both teams have only managed one batting point each, plus only three batters in both squads combined average over 35 this summer.

That's Ryan Higgins for the hosts and Rob Keogh and Saif Zaib for the visitors.

Merchant Taylors' has seldom been a high-scoring ground, where the average first innings score is 238.

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Stanley Park in Blackpool has not staged a Championship match for a dozen years but given Lancashire's record there, perhaps that's something of a surprise.

You have to go all the way back to 1994 for the Red Rose county's last defeat at the ground, losing by three wickets to Derbyshire after being skittled for 83 by Phil DeFreitas and Devon Malcolm and then, by way of contrast, totalling 589 in their second innings.

That remains a club record total at Blackpool.

Since then, Lancashire are unbeaten in nine games at Stanley Park, winning six of them, the most recent a 68-run victory over Worcestershire in August 2011 when Steven Croft scored 107 and 50.

A tinge of green in this wicket which Gloucestershire will hope burns away as the match goes on.

The forecast doesn't look great from mid-afternoon, though.

Durham are the runaway Division Two leaders with 131 points, 36 ahead of their nearest rival.

Gloucestershire are second from bottom on 60.

Brydon Carse returns for the hosts and South African all-rounder Migael Pretorius makes his first-class debut.

Gloucestershire bring in Dom Goodman and Josh Shaw - with James Bracey taking over from Graeme van Buuren as captain.

Division One

Canterbury: Kent v Warwickshire

Kent won toss and will bat

Blackpool: Lancashire v Essex

Essex won toss and will bat

Northwood: Middlesex v Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire won the toss and will bat

Taunton: Somerset v Hampshire

Somerset won toss and will bat

The Oval: Surrey v Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire won toss and will bowl

Division Two

Chester LS: Durham v Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire won toss and will bat

Cardiff: Glamorgan v Leicestershire

Toss and start delayed - rain

Hove: Sussex v Derbyshire

Derbyshire won toss and will bowl

Worcester: Worcestershire v Yorkshire

Worcestershire won toss and will bowl

Image source, Getty Images

Spin bowler Dom Bess could be forgiven for not knowing exactly where he is at the moment.

A Yorkshire player since 2021, he was loaned to Warwickshire for last month's Championship game against Essex, returning match figures of 3-191 as they lost by nin wickets.

Now, he finds himself back where his career began - at Taunton - after being drafted into the squad on another "short-term" loan.

Bess previously played 26 Championship games for Somerset, taking 79 wickets and scoring over 750 runs between 2016 and 2020.

Image source, Rex Features

If Surrey needed a wake-up call, they certainly received it in the last round of games when they lost to Lancashire by 84 runs at The Oval.

It was their first defeat on their home ground in 19 Championship matches, but despite that, Rory Burns' side remain in a strong position to secure back to back titles for the first time since 1999-2000.

First innings scores have been the problem for Notts this season and they have only mustered eight batting points from eight games, while their 23 bowling points is second only to today's opponents.

Pace bowler Jamie Overton is in the Surrey red-ball squad for the first time this season as Sam Curran is rested.

Dodgy, in some areas.

"Rain already pushing into the west, and this will creep north-eastwards during the day" says a BBC Weather, external tweet.

Not great then - but let's keep fingers crossed.

Thank you to England for getting the job done at Headingley with a day to spare.

It means that we have your undivided attention as we start a new round of County Championship fixtures.

Incidentally, in his book England The Biography, Simon Wilde writes of a captain who "by his belligerence...rekindled England's hope that the Australian juggernaut could be halted". No, not Ben Stokes - Lionel Tennyson.

Anyway welcome to our coverage of nine Championship games. Play is due to start at 11:00 BST.

Image source, Rex Features