Lancashire have named a 13-man squad for their Specsavers County Championship match against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl starting on Thursday.
Ashley Giles' side tasted defeat in their last four-day outing when Durham edged a thrilling encounter at Southport by two wickets, with Lancashire's third defeat of the Championship campaign leaving them in fourth place in the first division.
The Red Rose county are without a Championship victory in their last five matches, with the win against Hampshire in the reverse fixture earlier this year coming in a purple patch at the start of the season. Lancashire's victory by an innings and 94 runs - one of three victories this season - came back in May when Simon Kerrigan took five wickets on the final day to put Lancashire top of the Division One table.
Since then, Lancashire have managed only one win in six red-ball contests and a poor return in both one-day competitions leaves them with only six Championship matches remaining in their 2016 schedule. Another innings victory over Surrey secured the Red Rose their third win on home soil in as many matches, but Lancashire are yet to win away from Old Trafford in the four-day competition this summer.
Lancashire can return their attention to the four-day competition after they were eliminated from both the NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup last week, with news also emerging that three players - George Edwards, Gavin Griffiths and Luis Reece - are all set to be released at the end of the season.
Bottom-of-the-table Hampshire have had a disappointing season across the board, crashing out of both one-day competitions to compound their misery in the County Championship. Their first and only victory in ten attempts came against Nottinghamshire in May, but since then the south-coast outfit have lost two matches by an innings against Surrey and Middlesex, meaning that both Lancashire and Hampshire are without a victory in red-ball cricket in their last five matches.
The meeting at Old Trafford featured strong performances from Kerrigan on the final day, as well as a century for Luke Procter (137) in Lancashire's first and only innings. Since then, Procter has hit another hundred for the Red Rose, with his 122 against Durham at Southport setting up an enthralling final day. Tom Smith claimed superb figures of 5-25 in 16 overs to take Lancashire to within two wickets of beating Durham in their last Specsavers County Championship encounter, while 19-year-old loan signing Tom Moores made his first-class debut with a strong display behind the stumps.
Hampshire are without captain James Vince, who is tied up with England duty for the Third Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, with Will Smith taking charge of the side in his absence. The club has also been hit by the sudden loss of head coach Dale Benkenstein, who was forced to leave his role due to family reasons.
Hampshire 13-man squad: Will Smith (c), Jimmy Adams, Gareth Andrew, Tom Alsop, Gareth Berg, Tino Best, Mason Crane, Liam Dawson, Ryan McLaren, Lewis McManus, Joe Weatherley, Brad Wheal, Adam Wheater (wk).
Lancashire 13-man squad: Steven Croft (c), Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Tom Moores (wk), Matthew Parkinson, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith.
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