Warwickshire's testing start to their LV= Insurance County Championship title defence continues when Essex visit Edgbaston on Thursday.
The Bears made a solid opening to their season with a strong draw against a Surrey side which subsequently trounced Hampshire by an innings at The Oval.
Surrey are the early pace-setters in Division One but Essex are close behind them in second place having won an extraordinary, low-scoring game against Somerset at Taunton by one-wicket last week.
Essex will arrive at Edgbaston fuelled by momentum from that thrilling victory but, as reigning champions, the Bears have momentum of their own - and confidence from having beaten Essex in Birmingham a year ago almost to the week.
That pulsating seven-wicket win, set up by 18 wickets from Olly Hannon-Dalby, Craig Miles and Olly Stone and finished off by the skilful batting of Rob Yates and Sam Hain, proved to be a foundation stone for the glory that was to follow.
"They will come to us with spirits high after their win at Taunton. That looks like it was an amazing game, almost like Kwik Cricket, so it will be a very different game for them this week. We are used to playing on excellent pitches at Edgbaston, as we saw in the game against Surrey. It means you have got to work very hard and play very well to win a game which is the way it should be First Class cricket."
The Bears welcome Liam Norwell back into the squad, the paceman having recovered from the back spasm which ruled him out against Surrey. New signing Alex Davies also joins the squad and is available to make his debut, but Dan Mousley is ruled out by a broken little finger (he is likely to be sidelined for around two weeks) and Aussie fast bowler Nathan McAndrew's arrival has been delayed as he still he still awaiting his visa.
England pair Olly Stone, on his way back from injury, and Chris Woakes remain unavailable.
Against an Essex side determined to regain the title they have won eight times, most recently in 2017 and 2019, it promises to be another high-class match at Edgbaston.
"Although we only drew the first game, there were loads of positives to take from it," said Rhodes. "There were some standout individual contributions and to recover from 41 for four to get over 500 was really pleasing.
"Now we have to hit those standards again against Essex. It could be a very tight, hard-fought game so we need to take our chances when they come along."
Squad
Will Rhodes (C) Chris BenjaminDanny BriggsHenry BrookesMichael Burgess (WK)Alex DaviesSam HainOlly Hannon-DalbyMatt LambCraig MilesLiam NorwellDom SibleyRob Yates
How to Follow
Members and supporters can follow the match live in our new-look Match Centre at edgbaston.com, which will include a free to watch Live Stream, with BBC commentary, and a live text commentary. You will need to log-in to you My Edgbaston account to watch. Supporters can get involved by sending their match day comments and thoughts to matchday@edgbaston.com, and we’ll publish the best ones on our live text commentary in the Match Centre. Supporters can also watch the Live Stream and get instant push notifications of all wickets, innings and match results via the Edgbaston app, which is free to download on iOS and Android. Match updates will also be available across the Club’s social media accounts, simply search for @WarwickshireCCC.
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