ALAMGIR Sheriyar takes over as Worcestershire's number one strike bowler from absent Glenn McGrath for the County Championship Division Two match at Northampton starting tomorrow.

McGrath jets out to Australia at the weekend to play in a series of indoor internationals in Melbourne leaving Sheriyar with the task of trying to make the Aussie ace's temporary departure as painless as possible.

New Road coach Bill Athey said: "We need Sherry to bowl well. In fact, we need everybody to bowl well.

"We are going to miss Glenn, obviously any side would, so we need all our bowlers to be really firing and on song for the next two to three weeks."

Sheriyar returned to Worcestershire's Championship side for their last match against Gloucestershire at New Road and hinted at regaining form by taking a welcome 3-69 in the second innings.

Regular wicket-taking, however, has deserted him this season after a tremendous time last year when he finished as the country's leading bowler with 92 first-class victims.

So far this term he has just 21 wickets to his credit at an average of 34.33.

McGrath signed off yesterday when table-topping Worcestershire's National League title hopes suffered a dent when they lost by seven wickets in a floodlit clash at Northampton.

He returns on August 21 -- the day before the home Championship game against rivals Warwickshire at New Road.

Worcs (from): Wilson, Weston, Solanki, Pollard, Leatherdale, Driver, Rhodes (capt.), Lampitt, Illingworth, Kabir Ali, Sheriyar, Rawnsley.