JAMES Vince has been made available for Hampshire’s first Specsavers County Championship match of the season against Worcestershire.

The Hampshire captain ended an ultimately disappointing winter with 76, his third Test half-century, in the second and final Test against New Zealand.

But unlike many of their Test colleagues, Vince and Surrey star Mark Stoneman have not been afforded a period of rest by the England and Wales Cricket Board for the start of the championship campaign.

Vince and Stoneman will be bidding to strengthen their claims for England retention in the coming weeks.

Hampshire begin their season against Worcestershire at The Ageas Bowl on April 13 for which overseas signing Hashim Amla will also be available after scoring 196 runs at 24.5 in South Africa’s 3-1 success in their controversial recent series against Australia.

They then travel to Surrey, one of Amla’s previous counties, a week later.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, whose workloads have been among the heaviest in England’s contingent this winter, will be absent for Yorkshire’s first three championship fixtures against Essex, Nottinghamshire and Somerset this month.

However, England’s Test captain Root and wicketkeeper-batsman Bairstow will return for the Essex and Surrey games next month before reporting for England duty ahead of the first Test of the summer against Pakistan.

Root and Bairstow went unsold at the Indian Premier League auction but a number of their England team-mates have been selected for the franchise competition which gets under way this weekend.

The likes of Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali have been given the ECB’s blessing to appear in the tournament but, if selected for the first Test against Pakistan, they must return by May 17 - one week before the Lord’s Test gets under way.

James Anderson will undergo a medical before a decision is made on his availability for Lancashire, while fellow Test specialists Stuart Broad and Alastair Cook, as well as Dawid Malan, will be absent for the first two matches of the championship season.

England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was overlooked for the IPL and has intimated he would like to play first-class cricket for Middlesex for the first time in three years.

The ECB confirmed he would be available for the start of the season.