Even the England selectors would seem to be favouring Lancashire's bid to end their famously long 77-year wait for an outright County Championship title. Peter Moores's team climbed back to the top of the table by completing a 98-run victory against Worcestershire in Blackpool on Saturday, and Durham's hopes of displacing them by winning their game against Nottinghamshire that starts at Trent Bridge on Monday have been dented by the inclusion of three key players in the England squad for the one-off, one-day match against Ireland in Dublin.
That means Ben Stokes, Scott Borthwick and Graham Onions are all unavailable for Trent Bridge, and with Steve Harmison still recovering from an ankle problem, the 2008 and 2009 county champions will be forced to dig deep into their bowling resources.
They can still field a decent seam attack of Mitchell Claydon, Chris Rushworth and the under-rated Callum Thorp, and Mark Wood, a 21-year-old from Harmison's home town of Ashington, may also come into contention for a Championship debut. Durham are 13 points behind Lancashire with three games remaining, and also face a potentially tricky trip to Sussex before they end their campaign at home to Hampshire.
Nottinghamshire's hopes of retaining the title they won in such dramatic fashion last September disappeared a while ago, but they have been relishing the chance to make an impact on who will succeed them. They beat Lancashire in Southport last month, held Durham to a draw at the Riverside and restricted Somerset to six points from a rain-ruined match that ended in Taunton on Saturday, reaching 402 for nine after dismissing Marcus Trescothick's team for 177.
That leaves Somerset 21 points behind Lancashire, who have to go to Taunton in the last round of fixtures in September. Before then, Somerset face Hampshire and Yorkshire, and Lancashire also play Hampshire and another of the counties battling to avoid relegation, Worcestershire.
Warwickshire, the fourth team in the title race, missed a chance to keep the pressure on Lancashire when they collapsed to a 209-run defeat against Hampshire at Edgbaston on Saturday, with five of their top six batsmen out for ducks as they were skittled for 98 in their second innings. That leaves the Bears 26 points behind Lancashire with a game in hand on each of the three counties above them, but they will also be undermined by international calls for their game against Yorkshire that starts at Headingley on Tuesday – losing Chris Woakes to England, and Boyd Rankin and William Porterfield to Ireland.
