KABIR Ali will make his first appearance of the season when last year's beaten finalists Worcestershire take on Somerset in a Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy third round clash at New Road tomorrow (10.45).

The England paceman makes his comeback after recovering from surgery to cure a double hernia.

The 23-year-old proved his fitness this week during a friendly match in which he played for a combined Worcestershire and Somerset second eleven against Durham at Kidderminster.

He picked up a couple of wickets and also scored 48 runs after getting into his stride the previous week in another friendly against Gloucestershire at Bristol.

All-rounder Andrew Hall is still ruled out with a back problem.

The County's director of cricket Tom Moody said of tomorrow's showdown: "It's a big game for us. We are obviously very keen to do well in the competition. We did last year and we'd like to continue that.

"It would be great to have the opportunity to get back to Lord's and put the record straight."

New Road paceman Matt Mason accepts that tomorrow's match is not going to be easy, but is eager for the County to make up for their disappointing display in the final last season when they lost to Gloucestershire.

He said: "We didn't do ourselves justice last year. We played a one-day game at New Road recently against Sussex and everyone saw then what sort of a unit we can be in one-day cricket.

"We are first to admit in one-day cricket last year we lacked that spark and probably against Durham recently we let ourselves down. But we know how good we can be and we aim to prove that with another trip to Lord's. I think we wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"But it's not going to be easy tomorrow against Somerset. They are a very good side, but so are we.

"If we play at the level we should play at then we can beat anyone on our day."

Worcs (from): Peters, Moore, Hick, Smith, Solanki, Leatherdale, Batty, Rhodes, Mason, Nadeem, Kabir, Harrity.