DURHAM will again be without Michael Di Venuto and Ian Blackwell for the LV County Championship match starting today at home to Warwickshire.

Chris Rushworth has been added to the squad following his five-wicket haul in Sunday's CB 40 League win against Nottinghamshire and Durham will choose three from five seamers.

In the absence of Graham Onions, Steve Harmison will be asked to spearhead the attack as he seeks to continue the improvement he has shown in the last two games.

The choice for the other two places lies between Rushworth, Jamie Harrison, Callum Thorp and Mitch Claydon.

Rushworth's only championship appearance last season was in the rain-ruined match at home to Hampshire, when Durham forfeited their first innings and lost the game during the period when they slipped from the top of the table.

It was obvious that the downward spiral was continuing when they were outplayed by Warwickshire at Edgbaston last month, being bowled out for 163 and 139 in a nine-wicket defeat.

The visitors are without Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott this time, but they have since strengthened their attack by recalling Chris Woakes after injury.

He's a very useful No 8 and they have been able to move Tim Ambrose and Rikki Clarke up to six and seven because they are playing so well.

In their last match at the Oval they were in danger of defeat at 148 for five in the second innings, but those two shared an unbroken stand of 74 to clinch their fourth win from six games. Clarke is averaging 84.0 and Ambrose 50.4.

Warwickshire are one point behind leaders Nottinghamshire with a game in hand, and they are 72 points ahead of Durham, for whom the one ray of light is that they have to play Worcestershire and Sussex twice each in the second half of the programme.

Because of the Twenty20 break, the next four-day game is not until July 10 at Worcester, so it remains uncertain how much cricket either Di Venuto or Blackwell are going to get before then as neither has featured in the one-day side.

Di Venuto has an Achilles problem and Blackwell has been laid low by a back spasm but there is no prospect of an imminent return to action as there is very little second team cricket this month.

Warwickshire suffered their first defeat of the season in any form of cricket last Friday evening when they lost a CB 40 match at Canterbury after ex-Durham seamer Mark Davies took three for ten in eight overs.

Durham (from): P Mustard (capt), W R Smith, M D Stoneman, G J Muchall, B A Stokes, P D Collingwood, D M Benkenstein, S G Borthwick, J Harrison, S J Harmison, C D Thorp, C Rushworth, M E Claydon.