[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

After being given the entire Easter weekend off rather unnecessarily (and I think we can take a moment here to appreciate whatever genius at the ECB scheduled those counties who *did* play over Easter to start their matches on Maundy Thursday rather than, say, making the four days of play coincide with the four full days of public holiday), the Pears are back in action this week with a first fixture of the season at New Road. Sussex are the opponents, and going one better than a fortnight ago is the aim.

2021 was a notoriously controversial year for fans of the great seaside county, as they saw the big guns like Ben Brown, Phil Salt and Chris Jordan depart - hot on the heels of Danny Briggs, Michael Burgess, Laurie Evans, Reece Topley and Luke Wells - while their replacements were sourced from the local creche. With ten of their players at university age and three still at school, it was a brave statement of faith in the next generation, but also one that failed at least as often as it succeeded: last autumn, this same fixture saw Sussex dominate Worcestershire for three days only to fold like soggy chip-paper on the fourth. But at the age of 23, with 1000+ runs last summer and 300-odd in two weekends this year, new captain Tom Haines is already looking like a potential England saviour, and he's supported by incoming veterans Steven Finn and Fynn Hudson-Prentice alongside overseas men Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Rizwan. And if their season opener against Notts was a familiar old tale - Sussex were holding their own right up to the point when they suddenly weren't - a battling draw in Derby over Easter will undoubtedly have given the youngsters a bit of self-belief.

Meanwhile, in Peartown there's not too much of a post-mortem to be done on the Leicestershire draw; after hours and hours lost to rain and bad light - and here's as good a place as any to ask why on earth the ECB insists on extra overs being made up at the end of a day's play rather than the beginning, especially in April - Worcestershire just couldn't take the final wicket as the overs ticked away in the East Midlands. Moving forward, Azhar Ali will need to make amends with the bat to make up for a forgettable debut, but we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that Ed Pollock can go on exactly as he started. The weather's currently set fair all weekend, and the toss could be crucial, as there's no doubting the run-scoring potential of the Sussex boys if they get in early on a good wicket.

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