After the somewhat surreal situation of snow stopping play earlier this week in Durham, Middlesex travel down the M3 to the Ageas Bowl on Sunday to take on Hampshire in the club's third Specsavers County Championship Division One clash of the season.
With the inclement English weather conditions putting paid to any chance of either Middlesex or hosts Durham getting a result at the Emirates Riverside, the Seaxes head to the south coast looking for their first win on this year's campaign, and will be hoping that four days in Southampton, against a side suffering from key early season injuries, will provide them with the opportunity to secure it.
With Hampshire's attack missing Fidel Edwards and former Middlesex man Gareth Berg, Tino Best's arrival at the Ageas Bowl will add some much needed experience and quality to the hosts' bowling attack, and he is included in the Hampshire squad and should make his debut on Sunday. Fresh from hitting a hundred for Hampshire two's this week, Jimmy Adams returns to the Hampshire squad, and with both James Vince and Sean Ervine also reaching three figures against 2015 champions Yorkshire the week before in their last Championship outing, there's no shortage of runs in the hosts' line-up.
The early season form of Middlesex's top order is also reason for plenty of optimism coming in to this one, with Robson, Gubbins and skipper Voges already in the runs this term, whilst Malan, Simpson and Stirling have also looked impressive at the crease.
Steven Finn will again spearhead the Middlesex attack, and with six wickets to his name already, looks to be in fine shape with the ball, with Roland-Jones, Harris and Murtagh likely to complete a four pronged seam attack for the Seaxes.
With only two of the nine matches completed in Division One so far this term providing a positive result, Middlesex will be looking to secure a first victory of the campaign this week, which will see them settle in nicely at the top end of the Division One table.
Middlesex are pleased to announce an unchanged 14-man squad for their Specsavers County Championship match against Hampshire starting at the Ageas Bowl this Sunday, 1 May:
Adam Voges (c), Nick Compton, Steven Finn, James Franklin, James Fuller, Nick Gubbins, James Harris, Dawid Malan, Tim Murtagh, Ollie Rayner, Sam Robson, Toby Roland-Jones, John Simpson, Paul Stirling.
