Surrey haven't met Worcestershire in the County Championship for two seasons, but there will some familiarity, indeed some added spice, due to Gareth Batty and Steven Davies choosing to leave Worcester at the end of last season and head for the Brit Oval.

Worcestershire's batting line-up contains some well known names, but the main reason why the New Road outfit were relegated in 2009 was down to some woeful batting performances. Of tomorrow's line-up only Moeen Ali made more than one championship ton last term. Even overseas returnee Phil Jaques struggled by his high standards in the recent Sheffield Shield season down under. But when Worcestershire last played in Division Two, Vikram Solanki and Ben Smith made over one thousand runs and averaged over forty.

Seamers Gareth Andrew (dislocated finger) and Chris Whelan (hamstring) are ruled out through injury, so in comes Jack Shantry - who took a match aggregate 12-65 against Leeds/Bradford MCCE recently - and the experienced, if not always fit, Matt Mason. With the pitch for this game rumoured to be as dry as a bone, perhaps a spinner will come to the fore. Trouble is, Worcestershire haven't got one.

Mark Ramprakash has a pretty good record against Worcestershire. He has scored two hundreds in a match against them on two occasions - in 1998 for Middlesex and in 2004 for Surrey. He has also made a century in four out his last five championship head-to-heads with the New Road outfit, during which time his run reads: 130, 100*, 118, 196, 84, 33 and 142.

This will be the eighth time Whitgift School has staged a championship match. Surrey won three out of the first four, but have not tasted victory since 2006. Last year's championship game ended in a draw, but in the three years prior to that, between 2006 and 2008, the team batting second went on to win.

Of the team Surrey will have on show, only three have made a championship half-century at Whitgift School. As you would expect, Mr Ramprakash has filled his boots - so far he has made 921 first-class runs in ten completed innings at Croydon, including 4 hundreds, from seven appearances.

Matthew Spriegel goes into this match with 906 first-class runs to his name and Chris Schofield starts with 48 f-c wickets for Surrey.

Skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown is thought to be 50:50 for this game, after receiving a blow on a foot from Luke Wright in the second innings down at Hove. Stewart Walters has therefore been placed on standby. Of those already on the injury list, opener Michael Brown (tennis elbow) is now officially ruled out for the next month. It is looking unlikely that Chris Jordan (back) will see action before the end of May, but the news on Chris Tremlett (groin) is a little better. He is hoping to be fit for Gloucestershire's visit to the Brit Oval on 4-7 May.

Despite the ECB's efforts to kill off the County Championship, by coming up with a fixture list that defies belief, once again it looks as though the weather won't be playing ball, as it's looking set fair for the next four days. With holes in both of the batting line-ups on show, I can't see this game ending in stalemate. On paper you've got to fancy Surrey, who possess more of a spin threat, but, having started the summer with two defeats, it will be interesting to see how much it has dented their confidence.

D Mitchell, P Jaques, V Solanki (capt), M Ali, A Kervezee, B Smith, B Scott, R Jones, M Mason, J Shantry and A Richardson.

Rob Bailey and Neil Bainton.

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