SURREY V WARWICKSHIRE at the Guildford (SSCC1), 2-5 JULY 2016

Eighth in plays host to fifth-placed Warwickshire. Both sides have a solitary four-day victory to their names this season. However, Surrey owe their lowly position in Division One to four defeats, all of which have come away from home.

While the likes of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott are well know to all, Warwickshire, like Surrey, have some highly promising youngsters coming through. Middle-order batsman Sam Hain attracted a lot of attention last summer. Unfortunately, with just 120 runs from 10 championship innings, he seems to be suffering from second-season-itis. If they play, keep an eye out for 20-year-olds Mark Adair, who has already set the Twenty20 alight with his fast bowling, and opener Andrew Umeed, a right-handed Scot who announced himself in May with a champo hundred against Durham.

With the bat, Trott, Bell and the soon-to-be out of contract Varun Chopra have led the way for Warwickshire this summer. Chopra is averaging 47.90 in the County Championship, while the former England pair are ticking along at 62.11 and 46.50 respectively. Even with all-rounder Chris Woakes on international duty, the Bears can boast a quartet of bowlers who are bagging wickets at 30.54 or less in the championship - Keith Barker (32 scalps at 25.00 runs apiece), Rikki Clarke, Boyd Rankin and off-spinner Jeetan Patel.

Surrey v Nottinghamshire - First-Class Records Sheet
Guildford - First-Class Records Sheet

Aaron Finch will be making his Surrey debut. Plus, I keep pointing this out in the hope it'll change, but the number of first-class hundreds by Surrey batsmen still stands at 1,998.

Australia's Aaron Finch is set to take his first bow for Surrey, as Kumar Sangakkara's stand-in. Sam Curran (his A-Levels now behind him) will replace Ravi Rampaul, who, like Sangakkara, will spend the next five weeks playing in the Caribbean Premier League. But with Dominic Sibley still recovering from a back strain and Gary Wilson dropped it will be interesting to see who comes in out of James Burke and the fit again Mark Footitt.

Surrey have found Warwickshire a tough nut to crack for much of the last decade and a half, plus the Bears' record at Guildford is such they probably look upon Woodbridge Road as a home banker. But, according to the forecast, there could be some weather around on days one and four. Teams that have won championship games at Guildford in recent times have generally taken early wickets in the first dig. Should Surrey fail in that regard, the best the hosts can reasonably hope for against a Warwickshire side that bats deep is a draw. Prediction - a keenly contested stalemate.

V.Chopra, A.Umeed, I.Bell (capt), J.Trott, S.Hain, T.Ambrose (wk), R.Clarke, K.Barker, M.Adair, J.Patel and B.Rankin.

Ian Gould and Nigel Llong. When one or both of this pair of international umps have stood in a championship game involving Surrey, the Oval outfit's record has been Won 13, Drawn 11, Lost 7. Combined leg-before-o-meter: 17.3% of dismissals.

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