Nottinghamshire are heading into their first home pre-season match of the year on Monday with Mick Newell urging his squad to provide selection headaches.
Four days of friendly cricket remain prior to the opening first-class fixture against Loughborough MCCU on Tuesday 7 April, starting with the two day visit of Northamptonshire on Monday 30 March with an 11am start on both days.
And while the team that faces the students in little over a week's time will be a strong indication of who will feature in the LV= County Championship opener at Lord's against Middlesex, selections for the two day fixtures in the meantime are sure to be experimental.
"You want to get as many people as you can in as good a form as you can," said Newell.
"When picking the team for Loughborough University, which will be a good idea of whose going to play against Middlesex, we want as many people in form as we can.
"If you've got 14 or 15 lads all saying pick me for 11 spots, that's the best position you can be in.
"We will get people batting and hopefully making decent scores and there are also plenty of bowlers to put their names forward.
"We're not going to play the same 11 each day. We'll mix and match through the four days of cricket next week and try to get as many people as we can into good nick."
For Newell, the recent trip to Barbados has served its purpose and the squad has been hard at work in the nets since returning to the UK. Now it's time to acclimatise to the weather and pitch conditions of the English spring.
"You want to do your training in the best possible conditions which we have been able to do in Barbados," he said. "Now we've had a couple of nets here and we're ready to go.
"You want to play your matches here because these are the conditions we're going to be playing in over the next few weeks.
"We'll get through a few hand warmers in the next few weeks and a few layers. A few bits of thermal kit and beanie hats will be on display.
"But we've just got to get on with it. These are the conditions through April and May. When we start playing proper matches we're not going to be cracking the flags all of a sudden.
"The attitude has to be good and the performance needs to be high from the word go."
Nottinghamshire team to face Northamptonshire (Day 1): Greg Smith, Steven Mullaney, James Taylor, Samit Patel, Riki Wessels, Chris Read, Will Gidman, Brett Hutton, Matthew Carter, Andrew Carter and Jake Ball.
Entry to Trent Bridge for the match is free of charge and refreshments will be available in the Pavilion.
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