Yorkshire's Championship encounter with Hampshire, which begins at Headingley today, should serve up an intriguing foretaste of things to come in this winter's battle for the Ashes in Australia.

Unless England captain Michael Vaughan suffers a late and unexpected adverse reaction following his run-a-ball 67 on his comeback for Yorkshire in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy clash with Scotland on Monday, he will be making his first appearance in a Championship match in over a year.

With Joe Sayers relegated to the seconds, Vaughan opens the innings with Matthew Wood.

And if Vaughan sees off the new ball it should not be too long before he finds himself up against Shane Warne in what could be the first of several intriguing battles between the world class pair this year.

As well as looking forward to his tussle with Vaughan, the Hampshire captain was also relishing the prospect of coming up against his two great Australian mates, Darren Lehmann and Jason Gillespie.

Honours were even in the State match between Victoria and South Australia in February when Warne had Lehmann stumped for a rapid 21 but later in the game was dismissed by Gillespie for only one.

Warne commented: "Lehmann is one of my best friends in life and although we are very close we are both competitive.

"He and Mark Waugh are the two best Australians against spin and once we get on the field Lehmann likes to whack me all over the park and for most of the time he does that.

"But I've got him out a few times too. If I'm bowling when he comes into bat, he'll face no more than 50 balls from me, 60 balls absolute tops, but he might get a hundred if he stays in that long."

Warne, in spite of his brilliance, could have his work cut out over the next few days because Headingley has proved to be one of his most unsuccessful venues down the years.

In 1993, when Australia beat England by an innings and 108 runs there, he took one for 106 but did not bat and four years later in another Aussie innings victory, he claimed one for 55 and again did not get to the crease.

Playing for Hampshire in 2000, Warne captured two for 81 and bagged a pair as Yorkshire won by an innings and 100 runs and in the 2001 Test he managed only one for 107 and had yet another duck, England winning by six wickets.

Yorkshire (from): Wood, Vaughan, McGrath, Lehmann, Lumb, Gale, White, Brophy, Dawson, Kruis, Gillespie, Bresnan, Claydon.