WORCESTERSHIRE CCC head coach Alex Gidman says his side are in "a good place" a day ahead of their LV=Insurance County Championship Group One match against Durham at the Emirates Riverside.

County are lying in third spot after drawing their opening five games and just seven points off current leaders Nottinghamshire, whom they travel to meet at Trent Bridge next week.

A 14 strong squad has been named for the second of three successive away games after Worcestershire collected 14 points from the drawn encounter with Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

There is one change to the squad from last week, with Adam Finch coming in for the rested Alzaarri Joseph. The West-Indies international is rested for the Durham game as part of the rotation policy with the pace bowlers employed throughout the group matches.

Head coach Alex Gidman said: “It’s an extremely tough group. When teams are fully fit, and have international players back, there are some really strong teams.

“Durham, with Mark Wood back, at the moment, look like a very strong outfit, so it is another challenging week ahead for us.

“But we are confident. The lads are playing some good cricket, we know we can keep improving, but they are excited about the next fixture.

“With the conditions we’ve had and the opposition we’ve had, it’s been a question of ‘how many points, not how.’

"I’m not looking at the win-loss columns; it’s about how many points we have.

“It’s about accumulating as many as you can over a season and, the cards that have been dealt with us so far have meant trying to do that through good draws and as many bonus points as possible.

“We are in a good place going into the second half of the programme.”