DURHAM skipper Jon Lewis last night welcomed Paul Collingwood back into the team for the match against Hampshire starting at Riverside today.

"He's been working really hard for a long time and it's been very frustrating for him," said Lewis.

"He has been in the nets endlessly in the last two weeks. Batting has been no problem, but we had to make sure he could field comfortably.

"His shoulder is OK now and he is chomping at the bit to get going. It will be really good to have him back."

Collingwood was officially appointed Lewis's vice-captain just before suffering his shoulder injury in a pre-season friendly at Old Trafford.

Durham make three changes from the team which lost at Cardiff, where they played two spinners. Vince Wells is ruled out by his wrist injury, while Michael Gough and Nicky Phillips are left out.

Ashley Thorpe comes in for his first championship appearance of the season and Nicky Hatch returns to bolster the seam department.

"Ashley deserves his chance after making some big hundreds in the second team," said Lewis. "Michael Gough has had some good starts, but we need big scores.

"It was a close call between Graeme Bridge and Nicky Phillips, who bowled well at Cardiff."

It will be Collingwood's first championship appearance for 13 months, when he played in the defeat by Nottinghamshire at Riverside and followed it up with a century in the National League clash.

Shortly afterwards he suffered a neck injury which ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Durham need to cash in on the frailties of a Hampshire side who were thrashed by an innings by bottom club Derbyshire last week and are now only five points ahead of them.

But Durham had much the worst of their rain-affected draw at the Rose Bowl this season, when they followed on 221 behind and hung on at 137 for nine.

Hampshire have since lost Wasim Akram and Ed Giddins from their attack and have signed Sri Lankan left-armer Chaminda Vaas.

In fact, they could field three left-arm seamers as Alan Mullally and youngster James Tomlinson are also in their squad.

Mullally is back after injury, as are Robin Smith and wicketkeeper Nic Pothas, who made 79 in the Rose Bowl clash, while Simon Katich made 135 against his former colleagues.

Hampshire will be relieved not to have to face Shoaib Akhtar, who was expected to play for them this season but was unable to finalise the deal.

Durham: J J B Lewis (capt), N Peng, M L Love, P D Collingwood, G J Pratt, A Thorpe, P Mustard, G D Bridge, N Killeen, A M Davies, N G Hatch.

Hampshire (from): J P Crawley (capt), D A Kenway, J H K Adams, S M Katich, R A Smith, J D Francis, N Pothas, A D Mascarenhas, S D Udal, C Vaas, C T Tremlett, A D Mullally, J A Tomlinson.

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