[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Thursday morning sees Worcestershire opening their campaign with a first Championship visit to Grace Road since May 2016. Opponents Leicestershire got their own season off to a flying start last weekend with a surprise win down at Hove, dealing a welcome early blow to the promotion hopes of Sussex. However, the Foxes may make the case that it was no surprise at all, as their rejuvenation in red-ball cricket continues apace; last year their early-season form made them promotion hopefuls, and only a lack of batting strength caused them to sink into mid-table as the summer progressed.

If Leics are repeating their spring fireworks of 2018, then the Pears would do well to treat this match with caution. Despite losing Zak Chappell to Notts and Ben Raine to Durham, the Foxes have recruited Will Davis from Derbyshire and Chris Wright from Warks as like-for-like replacements, while Colin Ackermann remains an ever-present threat in the batting order. Meanwhile, a ten-wicket haul for ex-Derbyshire paceman Tom Taylor on the south coast makes him the seamer to watch this week.

With some cloud and sunny intervals forecast across the Midlands, it'll be interesting to see whether Ben Cox opts to contest the toss as he skippers the county for the first time. The Pears are likely to be without Joe Leach, still recovering from injury, and have now lost spinner Ben Twohig for the season. Nevertheless, it's the Worcestershire batting that will be under the spotlight, as the team can't afford the kind of regular collapses that marred 2018.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Mitchell, Rutherford, Fell, D'Oliveira, Wessels, Whiteley, Cox, Barnard, Parnell, Tongue, Morris