GLAMORGAN V SURREY at Cardiff (LVCC2), 19-22 APRIL 2015

Surrey's latest opening to a County Championship season since 2006 sees them travel to Cardiff, where they haven't been defeated since 1960 over three or four days. If it feels strange to be starting away from home, it is. Surrey have kicked their campaign off at the Oval in each of the last 14 years. Not since 1993 has their season started anywhere other than in SE11 or Taunton.

If Glamorgan are to hold their own in Division Two this summer Jacques Rudolph, Will Bragg, Colin Ingram (who qualifies as a Kolpak) and Chris Cooke (807 championship runs at an average of 42.47 in 2014) need to deliver with the bat. At 22, opener James Kettleborough, who joined the Welshmen from Northants over the winter, has time on his side. On their day, the Welshmen are capable of batting down to number nine in the order.

The departure of all-rounder Jim Allenby, to Somerset, has been offset by Craig Meschede coming the other way on a season-long loan. Regular first team cricket is likely to be the making of Meschede, whose 56 first-class wickets have come at a respectable 32.53 runs apiece. But the loss of Michael Hogan (Glamorgan's leading wicket-taker in the championship last year) to a hamstring injury is a massive blow. With Hogan likely to be sidelined for the first half of the campaign, even at this early stage the Welshmen will just be happy to see left-arm seamer Graham Wagg stay fit and healthy enough to be ever present.

Kevin Pietersen travels west with 926 f-c runs from 14 visits to the crease for Surrey. But for the time being, it would seem, Mark Ramprakash and Zander de Bruyn share the record for reaching 1,000 first-class runs for Surrey in the fewest number of innings, namely 18. Pietersen and Surrey old boy Jacques Rudolph go into the clash with 49 first-class centuries next to their name. Glamorgan's Dean Cosker (with 593) is approaching 600 f-c wickets, while Surrey's Stuart Meaker needs four more for 200.

Tim Linley (knee) and Chris Tremlett (hamstring) are ruled out because of injury, but with no shortage of cover in the seam department Tom Curran, Matt Dunn, Jade Dernbach, Stuart Meaker are vying for selection on this occasion. But it's the combination of Kumar Sangakkara at three and Kevin Pietersen at four that has everyone drooling. Of Surrey's 13-man squad, Vikram Solanki, who made just 21 and 8 against Oxford MCCU looks the likeliest to make way for Sangakkara, who makes his debut for the brown caps.

With the weather set fair, which bodes well for the rest of the season, Surrey's class should tell. But Glamorgan have been more than a match for the South Londoners in recent years, as is underlined by the fact that the Oval outfit's nine-wicket victory at Colwyn Bay last July ended a barren run of seven championship meetings without a win over the Welshmen.

J Kettleborough, J Rudolph (capt), W Bragg, C Ingram, C Cooke, M Wallace (wk), D Lloyd, G Wagg, C Meschede, D Cosker and A Carter.

Peter Hartley and David Millns.

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