Saif Zaib and Harry Gouldstone set to start for Northants at Somerset

The pair have been in excellent form for the second team in the past couple of weeks, and have been called into a 14-man squad for the trip to the south west along with James Sales, Gus Miller, Alex Russell and new Aussie recruit Jordan Buckingham, who will make his debut.

Dropping out of the team that lost to Hampshire last time out are the injured Lewis McManus and Josh Cobb, as well as Gareth Berg and Chris Tremain, who has returned to Australia.

Cobb misses out after suffering a calf strain, while wicket-keeper McManus is facing up to six weeks on the sidelines after breaking the index finger on his right hand while batting in the County's heavy loss to Hampshire last time out.

Gouldstone, who will keep wicket at Taunton, hit 133 for Northants IIs in their drawn match against Loughborough UCCE last week, with Zaib hitting 103 in the same match.

The pair put on 159 for the second wicket in the County's first innings of 451 for five declared.

Sales, Miller and Russell, who have all been in good form the seconds, are also added to the squad while Tom Taylor is likely to play having been 12th man last time out.

Northants go into the Somerset game off a free week following that humbling innings and 270-run loss to Hampshire.

Somerset were also without a game at the weekend and that means they remain one place below second-from-bottom Northants, with one point less than Sadler's side.

The west country outfit have yet to win this season, having drawn home matches with Warwickshire and Lancashire, and lost heavily at Nottinghamshire.

They have named a strong looking squad, with England pace bowler Craig Overton back in the frame having missed the draw with Lancashire.

Also included in their 13-man squad are Australians Cameron Bancroft, a team-mate of Sam Whiteman's at Western Australia, and Peter Siddle plus England spinner Jack Leach and former Northants man Jack Brooks.

Somerset squad v Northants: Tom Abell, Kasey Aldridge, Cameron Bancroft, Jack Brooks, Sean Dickson, Lewis Gregory, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Tom Lammonby, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, James Rew, Peter Siddle, Roelof van der Merwe.

Northants squad v Somerset: Luke Procter, Hassan Azad, Jordan Buckingham, Harry Gouldstone, Rob Keogh, Gus Miller, Alex Russell, James Sales, Ben Sanderson, Tom Taylor, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Jack White, Sam Whiteman, Saif Zaib