Skipper Chris Read believes Nottinghamshire are ready to start their Championship campaign with a bang following their demolition of Leicestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy.

Notts missed out on the opening round of first-class matches last week, giving the squad the chance for extra practice sessions and two friendly matches against Middlesex.

The result was an eight-wicket win with a massive 20 overs to spare and Read claims they are feeling the benefits of the extra preparation.

He said: “We played very nicely against Leicestershire and I think we showed that we are ready to get stuck into the season.

“We’ve had a long pre-season and missing out on the fixtures last week did give us time for extra training.

“While we have a few injury concerns, we did show the strength of the squad by having the likes of Luke Fletcher and Paul Franks come in and do such a good job against Leicestershire was terrific.

“That bodes well for the rest of the campaign and we are all very much looking forward to playing Worcestershire.”

Director of Cricket Mick Newell has named an initial 15-man squad for the match, as several players will need fitness tests ahead of the game.

He said: “We’ll need to see if the likes of Graeme Swann are ready for a four-day game. He did very well at the weekend and is desperate to prove his fitness to the England selectors, but we can’t rush him back prematurely.”

Notts squad v Worcestershire: Wagh, A Brown, Hales, Patel, Voges, Read (capt, wkt), Swann, Broad, Franks, Ealham, Adams, Fletcher, Jefferson, Shafayat, Pattinson.