Lancashire have named Jos Buttler in a 13-man squad for their final home match of the season against Division One leaders Middlesex at Emirates Old Trafford.
Middlesex have a slender one-point lead over Yorkshire at the top of the table, as the southern county pursue their first County Championship title since 1993. The Red Rose county are facing an entirely different prospect, with the possibility of relegation still looming over them heading into the depths of the season.
Ashley Giles' side are five points clear of eighth-place Hampshire with a game in hand, while Nottinghamshire became the first county to be relegated from the first division when they were beaten by Middlesex by five wickets in the last round of matches. Hoping to avoid three successive relegations from the first division, Lancashire also have a game in hand over Warwickshire, their final opponents in the 2016 season at Edgbaston.
The sides contested a high-scoring draw when they last met at Lord's at the end of June, with Alviro Petersen (191) and Nick Gubbins (201*) prospering on a flat batting track. Gubbins shared a 208-run partnership with Stevie Eskinazi, who scored a maiden first-class hundred in only his third appearance for Middlesex, but idyllic batting conditions and a final-day washout made any chance of a result impossible.
Their last meeting in Manchester at the end of the 2014 season saw Lancashire and Middlesex go head-to-head in a relegation battle, but the hosts were unable to force the victory they required to survive the drop. Since then, Middlesex have enjoyed a resurgence in red-ball cricket, finishing runners-up to Yorkshire last term and they are now marginal favourites to lift silverware after winning three of their last five matches since the draw against Lancashire at The Home of Cricket.
Yorkshire's temporary lead at the top of the table came after an emphatic 228-run win over Durham, while Middlesex relegated Notts to depose the aspiring three-time county champions. Buttler returns to the Lancashire side for the first time since breaking his thumb against Worcestershire in the T20 Blast, relieving skipper Steven Croft of his wicketkeeping duties at an important juncture in the season.
Lancashire 13-man squad: Steven Croft (c), Tom Bailey, Jos Buttler (wk), Jordan Clark, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Rob Jones, Simon Kerrigan, Toby Lester, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter.
Middlesex 14-man squad: James Franklin (c), Nick Compton, Stephen Eskinazi, Steven Finn, Nick Gubbins, Ryan Higgins, Dawid Malan, Tim Murtagh, Ravi Patel, Harry Podmore, Ollie Rayner, Sam Robson, Toby Roland-Jones, John Simpson (wk).
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