Surrey travel to Grace Road needing to win all four of their remaining championship fixtures to be in with a chance of promotion. Leicestershire, meanwhile, wrote off such fanciful notions a long time ago. To add to the Foxes' woes their overseas signing Andrew McDonald (knee) is still out of action and James Taylor, their star batsman, has been pulled out to represent England in Thursday's one-day international against Ireland.

In Taylor's absence, much rests on the shoulders of Will Jefferson (831 championship runs at an average of 36.13), Matthew Boyce and Wayne White, who, with five half-centuries in four-day cricket, has put himself firmly in the all-rounder category. Sadly, Josh Cobb, Greg Smith and Shiv Thakor are still some way off becoming the finished article with the bat, but they all have something about them, so patience is the key if you're a Leicestershire follower.

Similarly, the Foxes' attack has rarely demonstrated a cutting edge, particularly when Nathan Buck was sidelined with an ankle problem. Only one Leicestershire bowler can claim to have taken a championship five-fer this summer - Jigar Naik, who took 5-36 against Glamorgan, at the start of the campaign, and 5-34 against Kent, three weeks ago.   

Mark Ramprakash's first-class record against the Grace Road outfit reads 2,092 runs at an average of 90.95, including seven hundreds (three for Middlesex and four for Surrey).

Leicestershire's Jigar Naik goes into this contest with 95 first-class career wickets.

With Arun Harinath named in Surrey's second eleven side for the trip to Glamorgan, no changes are expected in the batting department. But the absence of Jade Dernbach, who has been called up to England's one-day squad, Stuart Meaker is expected to make his first appearance for the Oval outfit since the defeat, to Middlesex, at Guildford.

Leicestershire's only championship victory to date came in their opening game, at home to Glamorgan. So, this week, one expects that all the talk at Grace Road week will be about Twenty20 finals day. Surrey are in a similar boat. While they have carried all before them in the CB40, the Oval outfit currently lie seventh in Division Two of the championship. That said, four wins after 12 games is an improvement, at this stage, on 2009 and 2010. Everything therefore points to a Surrey victory, but with the forecasters saying a day and a half will be lost to the weather, a draw has to be the likelier outcome.  

W Jefferson, M Boyce, G Smith, J Cobb, W White, S Thakor, P Dixey (wk), J Naik, C Henderson, N Buck and M Hoggard (capt).

Steve O'Shaughnessy and Tim Robinson.

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