County Championship 2018 cricket guide: Counties to the fore... and England selectors will be keeping watch

A rare thing begins on Sunday: a high-summer round of County Championship cricket.

It is a vital one, too, providing England’s Test players with their only opportunity to get their eye in before the series opener against India at Edgbaston on August 1.

There are eight matches, but five that England’s selectors Ed Smith, James Taylor and Trevor Bayliss really need to keep an eye on.

Here is Will Macpherson’s guide...

Lancashire vs Yorkshire (Old Trafford, Division 1)

A fine line-up awaits the Roses Match. Kane Williamson is in for Yorkshire, as are their England boys — except, of course, Adil Rashid, who does not play red-ball cricket any more.

Joe Root will want his first red-ball century of the summer — particularly against James Anderson, steaming in after recovering from his long-standing shoulder issue.

It’s the battle of the dynamic keeper-bats, too, with Jos Buttler against Jonny Bairstow. Lancs’ Keaton Jennings, England’s incumbent opener, and Liam Livingstone, not too far back, will want runs. Both sides are languishing and need their big guns to fire.

A rare thing begins on Sunday: a high-summer round of County Championship cricket. It is a vital one, too, providing England’s Test players with their only opportunity to get their eye in before the series opener against India at Edgbaston on August 1.

There are eight matches, but five that England’s selectors Ed Smith, James Taylor and Trevor Bayliss really need to keep an eye on. Here is Will Macpherson’s guide...

Nottinghamshire vs Surrey (Trent Bridge, Division 1)

Table-topping Surrey are looking for a fifth win on the spin, but have to travel to their nearest rivals — 22 points behind having played a game more — to do so. The main point of England interest is Stuart Broad, back from an ankle injury and desperate to prove his readiness.

On the Surrey side, Sam Curran took seven wickets for the Lions this week and is a candidate to step in for Ben Stokes when he goes to court in the week of the Second Test at Lord’s.

Rory Burns and Ollie Pope joined him in the Lions and made second-innings runs but are probably just out of reach for the early part of the series.

Worcestershire vs Somerset (New Road, Division 1)

The three realistic options to bowl spin for England against India — an unenviable task — are all involved in this game.

Worcestershire’s Moeen Ali will be playing his first red-ball game since being dropped in New Zealand. He was replaced by Jack Leach, who got injured before he could play his second Test, and was in turn replaced by Somerset team-mate Dom Bess.

Bess took Indian wickets for the Lions this week but still seems the least likely to face them.

Leach is the favourite, despite his injury-restricted season, but Moeen is looking confident again and has 50 Tests on his side.

Middlesex vs Warwickshire (Lord’s, Division 2)

For years, this was a Division One game. Now it’s a tier lower, but with plenty of international quality. The fitness of Warwickshire’s Chris Woakes’ fitness — of knee and quad — provides the main point of interest for the selectors.

He limbered up with three tidy wickets for the Lions, for whom Dawid Malan also scored twin half-centuries to end a run of poor form.

More runs for Nick Gubbins would not go amiss, not least for Middlesex, who are fifth and 45 points behind leaders Warwickshire.

Gloucestershire vs Durham (Cheltenham, Division 2)

Finally, to beautiful Cheltenham College, not the most obvious surroundings for Ben Stokes to play his first Championship game of the season, but so be it.

He will want to find some touch with the bat and bowl more than six overs, which was the most he managed in the recent ODIs.

Mark Wood had a good ODI series and will want to show he has a role to play in Tests this summer, too.​