By Jon Steer
July 2 2003

Durham's first championship game for a month sees the much anticipated debut of Shoaib Akhtar who will be joined by Steve Harmison who has been released by the ECB to get some match practice. The match also sees Martin Love play his last game before leaving on international duty. So, its back to the proper business of cricket after the fun and games of the twenty20 cup! We need a good result here to start pushing for promotion.

Shoaib's debut alone is something to look forward to, he will be desparate to make a good start and is keen to show just what he can do in the county championship. With the bonus of Harmison being released by England we will be seeing the two together, something that we weren't expecting until much later in the season. Let's hope that the Worcestershire batsmen find the duo too hot to handle.

Harmison will want to show that he should be recalled to the England squad following the match. Phil Mustard will also be looking to show the ECB that he should be given a definate place in the academy squad after his inclusion in the provisional squad yesterday.

Jon Lewis will want to keep up his good form with the bat as he chases the record for the most runs in a season by a Durham player. The current record is held be Wayne Larkins who finished the 1992 season with 1536 runs. Jon currently has 756 runs from just 8 matches. With ten first class fixture remaining he should be in with a shout of breaking it. He has already scored more runs that any Durham player last season and has almost doubled his own total for last season of 402.

Like Durham, Worcs have injuries and international duties limiting their squad. South African Jonty Rhodes is still injured and Solanki and Kabir Ali are with the England squad.