Hampshire face possibly their toughest challenge of the season yet as they take on high-flying Derbyshire in the LV= County Championship at The Ageas Bowl starting tomorrow.

The only thing that’s been able to stop the midlanders so far has been the weather as they’ve set the pace at the top of the table with two wins and two rain-affected draws.

Opener Martin Guptill (269) and youngster Dan Redfern (228) have been the main threats with the bat so far with just shy of 500 runs between them at an average of just under and just over 45 respectively.

And they’ve been no slackers with the ball either as Tony Palladino and Jonathan Clare have 18 scalps each.

Hampshire are likely to be without batsman Michael Carberry as he has been selected for the England Lions’ squad for the four-day match against the West Indies.

Only if the one-time Test player isn’t selected for the final XI will Hampshire potentially be able to draft him into their team.

However, captain Jimmy Adams does return to the squad having missed recent matches for personal reasons.

James Tomlinson and Kabir Ali - who both took three wickets in the Second XI's recent Championship match against Essex - come into the squad in place of Hamza Riazuddin and David Griffiths.

Hampshire manager, Giles White said; “[Kabir and James] have both played in the Second XI and got some cricket under their belts so we welcome them back. Hopefully they'll bring some experience and quality back with them.

"[Derbyshire] are obviously playing some good cricket so we've got to be at our best, we're aware of that. We weren't that in our last game against Northants so we've got to put that right."