As part of the coverage for this year's LV= County Championship, Mark Butcher will give his views on the week's fixtures exclusively to ecb.co.uk. Here are his thoughts on the second round.
Division Two
Glamorgan v Surrey– (SWALEC Stadium, LV= Match of the round)
There are some big games in both divisions this week, but there’s only one place to start. No disrespect to either county, but it might have been a pretty low-key early-season game if it wasn’t for a couple of names on the Surrey teamsheet. Now the cricket public of Cardiff and south Wales have the chance to see Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakkara teaming up together for the first time.
It’s funny, going back to my playing days games between Surrey and Glamorgan always seemed to have a bit of needle – I’ve no idea why. So the Glamorgan boys are going to love this, with all the fuss there’s going to be about the Surrey superstars – and they’ll have the benefit of having played a game already, where they had some decent performances in a draw at Leicester, whereas this is the first game for Surrey.
I’m tipping Surrey to get promoted, but with the proviso that the support cast to KP and Sanga, if that doesn’t sound too disrespectful, aren’t overawed or submerged by the circus. You don’t win Championships, or Division Two titles, if you’re looking to two superstars to do everything. So the challenge is there for the other Surrey players and also Gareth Batty at the start of his first year as official club captain.
If there’s any danger of complacency, they only have to think of the first game of last season, when Glamorgan came to the Kia Oval and thrashed them by 10 wickets, with Graham Wagg taking 6-29 in the second innings.
Derbyshire v Lancashire (3aaa County Ground)
Lancashire, also playing their first game this week, are the other big beasts in this division along with Surrey. Huge expectations are a given - a fact that won't be lost on new coach Ashley Giles. They won’t exactly be short of experience either, with Alviro Petersen and Peter Siddle arriving to join Ashwell Prince in their team.
But Derbyshire could be a tricky game for them first up. I saw quite a bit of them last season and they’re a good side, one of the top-four contenders for promotion I’d say. In Mark Footitt they’ve got one of the more potent weapons in terms of pace bowling, although I still worry that the batting’s a bit over-reliant on their captain Wayne Madsen.
Graeme Welch, their director of cricket, will fancy it too, up against Ashley, who he used to work with at Edgbaston.
Essex v Kent (Essex County Ground)
Essex have lost a couple of guys from their squad last season with Ben Foakes going to Surrey and Tymal Mills to Sussex, and Ravi Bopara is at the Indian Premier League. Tom Westley is the bloke I’d be most looking forward to watching in their side – it’s a big year for him.
It’s a hard one to call with both sides starting off a week late, but I still worry about Kent’s ability to take 20 wickets. They’re fine for runs, with Sam Northeast,Daniel Bell-Drummond,Sam Billings,Rob Key and Joe Denly, who is back after a spell with Middlesex.
But surely they can’t rely so heavily on Darren Stevens again with the ball. They’ll be hoping Matt Coles is returning from Hampshire with a renewed focus to give them more of a cutting edge.
Division One
Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire (Trent Bridge)
It’s a good game not to be match of the round, as the champions go to one of the counties I fancy to challenge them.
There are some nice little subplots in this one as well. Andrew Gale is available again to lead Yorkshire, at the ground where he was a frustrated spectator, and wasn’t even allowed to lift the Championship trophy, when they clinched the title at Trent Bridge last September.
But I reckon Notts will get plenty of motivation out of that – it’s not nice watching another team lift a trophy at your ground. So I’d expect a very big performance from them, provided they’re fully recovered from the effort and disappointment of pressing for a win against Middlesex at Lord’s on the last day and not quite getting over the line.
Obviously Yorkshire have made an impressive start, with their quality telling against Worcestershire after they were on the ropes early in the game. This won’t go down well with the Yorkshire fans but it could be a bit different for them at Notts, especially now they’ve lost Ryan Sidebottom as well as the six guys away with England.
If they can get another win at Trent Bridge, it would be seriously impressive.
Sussex v Worcestershire (BrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground)
A real contrast here. Sussex will be buzzing after starting their season with a win at Hampshire, and now they go back home to Hove to play the other promoted team, who have to dust themselves down after losing their first game against Yorkshire.
I know Steve Rhodes has said they’re excited about the challenge, and I’m told they showed some promising signs, with a century for Tom Fell and wickets for Jack Shantry and Gareth Andrew.
But they’ve lost Moeen Ali, and Sachithra Senanayake didn’t make a great start. I still think they’re going to find things tough until Saeed Ajmal has completed his commitments with Pakistan against Bangladesh.
One thing that slipped under the radar a bit in that Sussex game was that for all the talk of Mills and Ajmal Shahzad, and of course Steve Magoffin, they still found a place in the side for Matt Hobden, a young local lad who’s highly-rated down there, and he took some handy wickets. I do like the look of Sussex at the moment.
Warwickshire v Hampshire (Edgbaston)
It must have been a real blow for Hampshire to have to start the season against Sussex without Jackson Bird and Andre Adams, two experienced seamers who they’d have earmarked for a key role in early season.
That left an even heavier load on James Tomlinson, an impressive performer who will bowl all day, but he needs more support. I gather he might have it from Adams this week, but maybe still not from Bird.
It was nice to see Danny Briggs picking up a couple of wickets, but their middle order looks a bit brittle to me, with too much responsibility on Michael Carberry and Jimmy Adams at the top.
Like Worcester, it’s a tough start for them, having to go to one of the fortresses of Division One at Edgbaston on the back of an opening defeat at home.
The target for Warwickshire is pretty obvious this year after they finished runners-up to Yorkshire – going one better. They’ll see this as a good chance to make a strong start.