[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Thursday morning sees Worcestershire open their campaign with a first Championship visit to Grace Road since April 2019. There was very little between the teams in 2021, with Leicestershire's final-day defeat at New Road allowing the Pears to leapfrog the Foxes into 3rd place in the third division, but after a poor summer for both sides there was nothing except pride at stake. Not so at the beginning of 2022: while the two counties are clear outsiders for promotion, there's nothing like a winning start to the campaign to build momentum and kindle a few ambitious dreams.

Whenever there are rumblings about reducing the number of first-class counties, Leicestershire are one of the first names mooted for the chop, but it appears they're making serious efforts to build a competitive red-ball team: captain Colin Ackermann leads a batting unit featuring former Pear George Rhodes, last season's top-scorer Lewis Hill and South African all-rounder Wiaan Mulder in an overseas slot, while Hassan Azad at the top of the order boasts an imposing first-class average of 39.33. With the ball, overseas man Beuran Hendricks will spearhead the Foxes attack, backed by veteran Chris Wright, while right-arm quick Will Davis impressed with 3-37 against Leeds/Bradford UCCE. 2021 was also the summer that Matt Parkinson's lesser-spotted brother Callum finally made his mark on the Championship with a 50-wicket haul: it effectively doubled his first-class career tally, and Simon Harmer was the only spinner to bag more. While it may be a bit early in the year to see Parky in full effect, he'll remain an asset to the hosts with an old ball in hand.

It'll be a week of firsts for Worcestershire, with Dolly leading the Pears as full-time skipper for the first time, while Azhar Ali looks set to make his debut and Ed Pollock may join him for a first-ever Championship appearance, having been utilised purely as a white-ball player in his Edgbaston years. There's no place in the squad for Tom Fell or Josh Tongue, but otherwise everything is as you'd expect for this all-important curtain-raiser.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Libby, Ali, Roderick, Haynes, D'Oliveira, Barnard, Cox, Baker, Leach, Pennington, Morris