ESSEX have named their side in advance of the LV= County Championship match against Northamptonshire, starting today at Wantage Road, and the side includes Ryan ten Doeschate who will make his first appearance in the competition this season.

The 31-year-old has been playing in the IPL for winners Kolkata Knight Riders and head coach Paul Grayson is naturally delighted to have the all-rounder back in the line-up.

“It’s good to have Tendo back, he’s a good experienced cricketer and he’s looking forward to playing four-day cricket again,” Grayson said.

“Last year, when he came back to us, he had been playing a lot of cricket around the world and looked a bit tired but this time, he’s looking fresh.”

Alviro Petersen has returned to South Africa and Essex will go into the match without an overseas player although they do have Ravi Bopara back who missed the defeat to Derbyshire in the previous Championship match because of injury. Tom Craddock also comes into the side with the leg-spinner replacing pace man Tymal Mills.

Although Essex have only one Championship win to their name thus far in 2012, Grayson believes that his side can still have a say in the push for promotion.

“We are still in with a chance in Championship cricket, there are nine games to go and if you get back-to-back wins in four-day cricket, you can soon shoot up the table,” he said.

“We had a very encouraging win against Gloucestershire Gladiators on Monday in the Clydesdale Bank 40 which is just what we needed. I thought that we bowled really well for 35 overs and although they got a few runs at the end of their innings when we didn’t quite get our yorkers right and we need to look at our death bowling, our performance overall with the ball was pleasing.

“Then Ravi batted beautifully and I thought that Tom Westley’s innings was superb and he’ll take a huge amount of confidence from that as well. They made the run-chase comfortable and helped us to a comfortable first win in that competition.”

The match between Essex and Northamptonshire earlier in the season at Chelmsford fell victim to the weather when the only play possible came on day two of the four days and then only 27 overs were sent down. In that time, Essex had reached 54 for six wickets with Mark Pettini was the only batsman to reach double figures.

Of the other 167 County Championship contests between the two counties, Essex have won 53 matches and lost 42 whilst one game finished as a tie.

Essex: J Foster (wkt, capt), M Pettini, T Westley, O Shah, R Bopara, B Foakes, R ten Doeschate, G Napier, D Masters, C Willoughby, T Craddock.