THE presence of their three England players has given Durham a welcome selection dilemma ahead of the championship match against Kent starting at Riverside today.
While it was always likely that Ben Harmison would make way for Paul Collingwood, Durham must decide whether to leave out Callum Thorp or Ottis Gibson to accommodate Liam Plunkett.
They have also widened their options by sending Gordon Muchall with the A team for their three-day match at Old Trafford while including both Kyle Coetzer and Garry Park in the squad.
It is not necessarily a straight choice between them as both could play at the expense of Gareth Breese, who had an X-ray yesterday on a hand injury.
No break was shown, but if he is suffering some discomfort Durham may decide to leave whatever spin bowling might be necessary to Will Smith.
Breese has not taken a wicket in two championship matches to date, and with Collingwood adding to the bowling strength Durham could opt for the extra batsman.
Coetzer looks likely to make his first championship appearance for three years following his unbeaten innings of 152 and 19 against Durham UCCE and his 35 in Monday's Friends Provident Trophy win against Lancashire.
The sudden blossoming of the 23-year-old Scot is a reward for Durham's patience with a player who has been nurtured through the academy and made 67 on his championship debut at Cardiff.
He has endured a couple of lean seasons, averaging only 21.16 in 19 Second X1 Championship innings last season, but was not afraid to take on Andrew Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood on Monday.
Kent will be surprised to see that Muchall has been dropped after he scored a double century at Canterbury just over a year ago.
Durham won that match by an innings, but Kent had their revenge in the return fixture at Stockton and arrive at Riverside fresh from an innings win against champions Sussex.
They boast two high-quality overseas all-rounders in South Africa's Andrew Hall and Pakistani Yasir Arafat, who scored 122 against Sussex and also bowls at a lively pace.
Collingwood will be looking to get the better of Hall, who destroyed England's batting in what amounted to the World Cup quarter-final.
Both sides have 24 points from two games, and although they are joint seventh they have a game in hand on most counties and are 11 points clear of the bottom two.
Durham (from): D M Benkenstein (capt), M J Di Venuto, W R Smith, P D Collingwood, K J Coetzer, G T Park, P Mustard, G R Breese, L E Plunkett, O D Gibson, G Onions, S J Harmison, C D Thorp.
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