THE Specsavers County Championship table is an eye-catching sight for northerners with Lancashire and Yorkshire sharing top spot and Durham one point behind.

Given that they have lost to the other two, it can be claimed that Lancashire are in a false position and it will be interesting to see how they fare at home to Warwickshire this week.

Their two main rivals, meanwhile, meet at Emirates Riverside today, facing the dilemma of switching quickly to four-day mode after three weeks of one-day action.

While it was not ideal for Durham to get back from Northampton after sunrise on Saturday, nor was it perfect preparation for Yorkshire to have a T20 match at Headingley yesterday.

Much will be made of the fact that Yorkshire are lacking five England one-day players, but they do have the advantage of a top quality overseas man in New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson.

“We had some plans for how to bowl at him at Scarborough three years ago, but he still got 84 and 97,” said Durham coach Jon Lewis.

“He's ranked in the top ten batsmen in the world in all formats at the moment.”

Even though Durham's lack of an overseas player has left them struggling to fulfil their aspirations to lift performances, and crowds, in the NatWest T20 Blast, Lewis is resigned to continuing without one.

Durham finished their last championship match, at Trent Bridge on May 31, with three bowlers injured. Graham Onions and James Weighell have recovered, but a replacement is required for Brydon Carse.

The recurrence of the foot problem which ruled out the paceman for the second half of last season is a concern and he is unlikely to be seen for some time.

Durham can choose between Usman Arshad, Barry McCarthy and Paul Coughlin, with the match coming just too soon for Mark Wood.

The England paceman will make his comeback from two ankle operations in the three-day second team match against Lancashire starting at Brandon tomorrow, although only as a batsman.

Durham will then wait to see whether the England medics feel he is ready to bowl in the four-day match against Sri Lanka A starting at Riverside on Sunday.

Ben Stokes is also chomping at the bit to get back into action, although he is restricted to batting in the nets at the moment.

Durham (from): P D Collingwood (capt), M D Stoneman, K K Jennings, S G Borthwick, J T A Burnham, M J Richardson, R J Pringle, U Arshad, W J Weighell, C Rushworth, G Onions, B J McCarthy, P Coughlin.