Preview: Lancashire v Yorkshire - Specsavers CC

Lancashire have named a 13-man squad for their Roses clash with Yorkshire in the Specsavers County Championship at Emirates Old Trafford starting on Saturday.

The Red Rose county are without a win in their last six County Championship matches, with their last victory in red-ball cricket coming against Surrey at the end of May. Since then, Ashley Giles side have drawn four and lost two matches, with the latest fixture ending in a stalemate against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.

Will Smith hit a career-best double century for Hampshire to help the home side post 548/6 declared, while Haseeb Hameed responded with half-centuries in both innings to take his overall tally to eight fifties this season, leading Lancashire's resistance on an increasingly turning wicket. Despite a slight scare on the final morning in Southampton, the visitors walked away with a hard-fought draw, but Lancashire have now slipped down to sixth in the Division One table.

Yorkshire, meanwhile, are enjoying a superb spell in all formats of the game, coming into this match on the back of a quarter-final victory against Glamorgan in the T20 Blast. After securing their first trip to Finals Day since 2012, as well as earning a place in the quarter-finals of the One-Day Cup, Yorkshire will be hoping to strike together a late bid for the Championship trophy and record a hat-trick of four-day titles.

Adam Lyth celebrating his century the last time Yorkshire played a four-day match at Old Trafford.

The reigning champions - who are in third place with a game in hand over most other sides - achieved  a 48-run win over Warwickshire in their last four-day outing in a low-scoring contest at Headingley. 

The last time Yorkshire visited Old Trafford in the four-day competition it did not end well for the Red Rose county. 

The Tykes recorded a resounding victory by an innings an 18 runs after Adam Lyth's career-best 251 helped Yorkshire to post a formidable total of 610/6 declared. Lyth and Adil Rashid shared 296 runs for the sixth wicket, as the England leg-spinner hit 159 to help the visitors to a comfortable win.

Lyth will undoubtedly be the key man for Yorkshire on his return to Manchester, with the opening batsman extending his success at Old Trafford beyond the four-day contest already this season, hitting 136 in the One-Day Cup to inflict Lancashire's heaviest ever defeat in List A matches by a margin of 242 runs. He is 69 runs away from reaching 8,000 first-class career runs and he will be out to prove a point given that Alex Hales is struggling to make his mark at the top of the order alongside Alastair Cook in the Test side.

Yorkshire boast, arguably, the strongest all-round side in the country, even in the extended absence of the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance, who remain tied up with international duties for the Test series against Pakistan. The likes of David Willey, Liam Plunkett, and of course Rashid, allow Yorkshire to field international-quality players, while the consistency shown by the likes of Jack Brooks and Steven Patterson in this campaign gives them incredible depth in the bowling attack.

In addition, Tim Bresnan's all-round exploits are not to be underestimated, especially after he and Rashid inspired Yorkshire's resurgence in the reverse-fixture at Headingley with their partnership worth 136 runs, after Lancashire had their enemies on the ropes at 79/5. Yorkshire went on to win the game comfortably despite making an indifferent start, beating Lancashire by 175 runs after the visitors were dismissed cheaply in both innings for 196 and 173 respectively.

Bresnan and Rashid scored vital runs and took 13 wickets between them in the meeting earlier this season.

To add insult to injury from Lancashire's perspective, Yorkshire have also recruited the services of Jake Lehmann. The son of Australia's Head Coach, who scored 8,871 runs during a career with Yorkshire that spanned from 1997 to 2006, is one of the most hotly-anticipated talents in Australian cricket.

Jason Gillespie's tenure with the Big Bash League team Adelaide Strikers has given Yorkshire the opportunity to strengthen the side with Travis Head, who has been called up to Australia's one-day side for the series against Sri Lanka starting on 21 August.

Yorkshire skipper, Andrew Gale, will be hoping for an inconspicuous affair after the last meeting at Old Trafford in 2014 saw him exchange verbals with Ashwell Prince. The subsequent punishment for abusing the South-African batsman was a two-match ban and he was also prohibited from lifting the trophy when Yorkshire were crowned champions for the first time in 13 seasons.

Lancashire 13-man squad: Steven Croft (c/wk), Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith.

Yorkshire 14-man squad: Andrew Gale (c), Tim Bresnan, Jack Brooks, Andrew Hodd (wk), Jack Leaning, Alex Lees, Jake Lehmann, Adam Lyth, Steven Patterson, Liam Plunkett, Azeem Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Ryan Sidebottom, David Willey.