Seventh-placed Surrey travel to the Rose Bowl, where they have never suffered a defeat in the County Championship. However, the weather forecast for the next four days suggests their record at the Ageas Bowl will go from being three wins and one stalemate to three victories and two draws.

Division Two table-toppers Hampshire appear to have picked up a gem of an overseas player - 26-year-old South African seamer Kyle Abbott, who has already claimed 11 championship wickets at 21.54 runs apiece. Left-armer James Tomlinson is dependable once more, but if Jimmy Adams's men have a weakness it is a lack of bowling depth. David Balcombe, Matt Coles and Sean Ervine have struggled to locate a consistent line and length, while Danny Briggs and Chris Wood are still to feature this term.

James Vince, who made 1,101 championship runs at an average of 61.16 in 2013, has picked up where he left off last season by hitting 282 runs at an average of 94.00 in Hampshire's opening three games, including 144 and 58* against Gloucestershire. Michael Carberry also reached three figures at Bristol, while fellow opener Adams has limbered up with half centuries against Worcestershire and Derbyshire.

Only Liam Dawson, who was a model of consistency last summer, is yet to really hit his straps with the bat; both he and Joe Gatting, who moved across from Sussex during the winter, appear to be the main beneficiaries of the hand injury that befell Adam Wheater against Gloucestershire.

Of the hosts, Kyle Abbott goes into this contest with 198 first-class wickets, Michael Bates (974) is approaching 1,000 f-c career runs; while Sean Ervine has 248 first-class wickets to his name and James Tomlinson will be making his 100th f-c appearance for Hampshire.

Surrey have made one change to the 12-man squad for the Essex game. Chris Tremlett is out with a stiff back. In comes Arun Harinath, which suggests that a return to first team duty is on the cards for 19-year-old all-rounder Tom Curran. The inclusion of Harinath, who has been is decent form with the bat in second team cricket just recently, could mean that Gary Wilson will miss out. Wilson, who will be on international duty with Ireland in a week or so, has made just 19 runs in three visits to the crease so far this season. Zafar Ansari is named again, despite suffering concussion after careering head first into the boundary fence at the Oval on Easter Monday.

The weather forecast is even less promising than last week's, so I'll keep this short - "Draw".

M Carberry, J Adams (capt), L Dawson, J Vince, W Smith, J Gatting, K Abbott, S Ervine, M Bates (wk), M Coles and J Tomlinson.

Mark Benson and Russell Evans.

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