Worcestershire's overseas signing, New Zealand paceman Matt Henry, is poised to make his debut in today's Specsavers County Championship match with Kent at New Road.
The 24-year-old flew into England earlier this week to link up with his new team-mates and has been acclimatising to conditions in England during the past few days.
Henry is part of a 12 strong squad named by Director Of Cricket Steve Rhodes as the County look to bounce back at the first attempt following their relegation from Division One.
Rhodes is confident the Worcestershire squad will be challenging for promotion at the end of the season – irrespective of how the early part of the season pans out.
He said: "We'd like to be fast out of the blocks but that is not always possible. One thing about this group of players and the club generally is we tend to go all the way through to the end of the season.
"I'm hopeful whether we get off to a good start or not, we will be in a good place by the last two or three weeks.
"One thing I always feel confident with is that wherever we are, in the second half of the year this side will always be playing for pride and we could very easily pick up a lot of points towards the end that could catapult us to somewhere near."
Brett D'Oliveira will be looking to impress in the opening role after scoring his maidern first class century against Oxford MCCU last weekend.
Rhodes said: "He will be desperate to try and cement that place in the team. He has shown some really good qualities for doing the job and hopefully he will do that but time will tell.
"He knows he needs to keep on top of his game and making sure he is getting good starts for the season.
"It is not easy early season being an opener in England but his game is quite well suited.
"He plays well off both feet, leaves the ball quite well, can put the 'four' ball away and he is busy between the wickets so there is no reason to say he can't handle the new ball in English conditions."
Worcestershire (from):
Mitchell
D'Oliveira
Clarke
Kervezee
Kohler-Cadmore
Whiteley
Cox
Leach
Barnard
Henry
Shantry
Morris
