DURHAM will hand first-class debuts to Ben Harmison and Moneeb Iqbal in the three-day match against Oxford University starting in The Parks today.

Both are 20 and made their Durham Academy debuts in 2003, but while all-rounder Harmison has progressed to the full-time staff this season leg-spinner Iqbal has been held back by injury.

Born in Glasgow, he played for Scotland at 16 and made a big impression in his first year with the academy, taking seven for 45 in a Premier League match against Sunderland.

But progress is notoriously difficult for leg-spinners and in his first senior outing Iqbal will be keenly watched by coach Martyn Moxon.

Harmison, whose main strength is as a left-handed batsman, will be hoping for better luck than on his first team debut last year, when he was out first ball in the one-day match against Bangladesh A.

Gareth Breese, who has totalled 100 runs in eight championship innings this season, is given the chance to find some form, but the rest of the top six have only a handful of first-class appearances between them.

They include reserve wicketkeeper Garry Park, who as a student at Anglia Ruskin University played nine matches for Cambridge UCCE from 2003-5, averaging 30.09.

James Lowe, who has made only three first-class appearances since scoring 80 on his debut against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in 2003, will open with Gary Scott.

A strong seam attack includes Mark Davies and Mark Turner, who shared 12th man duties with Scott in the second Test at Edgbaston last week.

Moxon explained: "The England bowling coach, Kevin Shine, was impressed with Turner when he came up to monitor Steve Harmison's progress.

"He asked Mark to bowl at the England batsmen in preparation for the Test. He can bowl with genuine pace and we are happy for him to do that, but the question is how many runs would he leak at first-class level? He has to be more consistent in his lines and lengths."

Durham always used to start the season with a trip to The Parks until David Boon offered the opinion that the standard of cricket was of little benefit to the first team in their build-up for championship action.

It was the scene of their inaugural first-class match and they visited every year until 1997, culminating with Jon Lewis making his career-best 210 not out on his Durham debut.

He shared a first-wicket stand of 290 with Paul Collingwood, which has been bettered only once in Durham's first-class history, and that was in the same fixture the previous year when Stewart Hutton (172) and Mike Roseberry (145) put on an unbroken 334. It was Roseberry's only century in 78 first-class innings for his native county.

Since the six University Centres of Cricketing Excellence were founded Moxon's men have always played Durham UCCE and have come up against more players who have gone on to make their mark than they did at Oxford.

In 1992 and 1993, however, Oxford's opening batsmen were Sussex's Richard Montgomerie and Nottinghamshire's Jason Gallian, who made a century against Durham at Trent Bridge two weeks ago.

There is no place for left-arm spinner Graeme Bridge in today's side as he has not fully recovered from a hand injury.

Durham: J A Lowe, G M Scott, B W Harmison, G R Breese, K J Coetzer, G T Park, M M Iqbal, C D Thorp, M L Turner, N Killeen, M Davies