Munro out to change losing trend

Both Lancashire and Worcestershire have three wins from five matches and are separated in the middle of the North Group by net run rate alone and are both coming off the back of wins last week: Lancashire, a 67-run victory over Derbyshire, Worcestershire, a 3-run victory over Durham. History is not on Worcestershire's side for the first of their fixtures, with them having lost all five of their previous meetings against Lancashire.

Worcestershire will have New Zealand international Colin Munro in their squad after he was released by the New Zealand management having been drafted in as cover for Corey Anderson. Munro is part of an unchanged 12-man squad that also includes international duo Moeen Ali and Saeed Ajmal. Lancashire have named an unchanged 14-man squad.

This match sees third-placed Leicestershire travel to ninth-placed Derbyshire, with the visiting side already having recorded a victory at home in the equivalent fixture earlier in the season. After winning their opening three fixtures, Leicestershire's season has stalled somewhat with consecutive defeats being followed by an abandoned match last week against Northamptonshire.

Back-to-back fixtures, with the clash against Derbyshire being followed by a visit to Warwickshire, offer Leicestershire a chance to get their season back on track and coach Andrew McDonald is aware of the significance of the two matches at this fragile point in the season. "With three wins, two defeats and one abandoned we're on the right side of the ledger, and these are two important games for us," he said. Leicestershire will be without all-rounder Kevin O'Brien who is on international duty with Ireland, but other than that name the same squad that travelled to Northampton last week.

Bottom placed Derbyshire meanwhile are still searching for a complete performance according to Elite Performance Director Graeme Welch. "We haven't really put a game together yet," said Welch. "We've bowled well in games and batted badly, and in other games we've batted well and our bowling has let us down." Tillakaratne Dilshan has been named in Derbyshire's 12-man squad after being left out of their Championship fixture this week for personal reasons, while Tony Palladino and Greg Cork make way from the 14-man squad that travelled to Lancashire last week.

Before these two teams played each other earlier in the season Middlesex had won two consecutive matches on the back of two totals of more than 200, now, just two weeks later, those two wins remain Middlesex's only two wins with defeat away to Hampshire being the first of a sequence of three consecutive defeats that have turned Middlesex's promising start into a start of familiar woe.

To make matters worse for Middlesex they will be without international duo Eoin Morgan and Steven Finn who are on England duty, and are missing overseas batsman Joe Burns, Dawid Malan, Ravi Patel, and Nathan Sowter through injury, all who would be in contention to start. Sowter, who sustained an injury while fielding against Gloucestershire on Sunday, is expected to be out for two weeks. Middlesex have added Ryan Higgins to last week's 14-man squad with Burns and Sowter ruled out. This will be Middlesex's first home match since they plundered a record score at Lord's and defeated Kent three weeks ago.

Hampshire meanwhile have one of the most stable squads in the country and have made just one change from last week's 14-man squad with Fidel Edwards' Caribbean Premier League commitments forcing him out. Despite bouncing back from defeat against Somerset with a win away against Kent last week, Sean Ervine is aware of the competitiveness and complexity of a condensed South Group. "It's ridiculous how tight this group is. There's plenty to play for that's for sure," said Ervine on Wednesday. "The next two games are massive for us - any sort of win, you try to take that momentum in to the next game but there are some strong teams in this group."

Not too long ago Kent were flying high at the top of the South Group while Essex, with a glut of fixtures in the first few weeks, were bottom, with four losses from five matches. However, three consecutive wins for a resurgent Essex and back-to-back defeats for Kent see Essex enter this match one place above Kent at fourth in the table.

Essex's early struggles were surprising given the strength and depth of their squad and coach Paul Grayson has said that he felt that his team would turn it around. "We always had confidence in the group that they would turn around that early season form. It was a tough start because of injuries and players unavailability but we knew that, once everyone had returned and we got a bit of confidence back, we would prove ourselves to be a good limited-overs side," he said. Essex have added Aron Nijar to their 12-man squad for last week's match against Sussex. Reece Topley and David Masters have been included but are both recovering from injuries.

Kent, meanwhile, who don't play another home fixture for four weeks, have named a 12-man squad, leaving out Adam Riley and Matt Hunn who were included but didn't play in last week's defeat against Hampshire, and have selected fast bowler Ivan Thomas who has never played a professional T20 match.