ESSEX have named a 13 man squad ahead of the LV= County Championship match with Glamorgan at the Essex County Ground, which starts today.

All-rounder Liam Dawson, on-loan from Hampshire, is set to make his home debut, while Tom Westley and David Masters have recovered from injury and are expected to play after featuring for the Eagles against Middlesex on Friday evening.

But Essex Head Coach Paul Grayson acknowledges that his squad are set for intense period of cricket in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got a couple of important weeks in all forms of cricket ahead of us, starting with the Glamorgan match,” said Grayson.

“It’s been a tough schedule recently for a lot of county sides with a large amount of cricket along with the travelling too.”

“Hopefully our group will show they are physically and mentally strong enough and will come through it.

"We’ve got a couple of regular faces back after injury and we are in a position where we have seven Championship matches left.

“We had a couple of back-to-back wins recently and then the draw at Old Trafford earlier this week, although that performance against Lancashire was not as good as we would have wanted to play.

“We need to go on a bit of a run in four-day cricket again but Glamorgan will be tough opposition.

"They have been playing some really good cricket and they start the game above us in the table, so I expect it to be a really competitive match.

“We are playing catch-up on a couple sides but if we can win this game, we will have still given ourselves a chance of doing something.

"We are probably selecting from our strongest squad and the balance of the side looks strong.

“So it’s down to individuals to put in good performances and making some really big contributions to help us win the game.”

Essex squad to face Glamorgan: Foster, Browne, Mickleburgh, Westley, Dawson, Bopara,  Ryder, ten Doeschate, Napier, Masters, Salisbury, Nijjar & Porter.