South African fast bowler Deon Kruis is due to make a timely return to action for top-of-the-table Yorkshire at Riverside tomorrow as they sought to complete the LV Championship double over third-placed Durham.

It will be Kruis's first Championship appearance of the season after breaking down with a hamstring strain during the opening Friends Provident Trophy match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on April 22.

Kruis has worked hard on his fitness since then and Yorkshire are relieved to have him back in the side to beef up the attack now that Matthew Hoggard is back in the England camp.

The Kolpak paceman is aware that he has a big task on his hands because Hoggard captured 17 wickets in his four Championship appearances, including five for 32 as York-shire overwhelmed Dur-ham by nine wickets at Headingley Carnegie in late April.

"It is good to have Deon in the side again because we need a bowler of his experience to replace someone who has done such an excellent job for us as Matthew managed," said Yorkshire's director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon.

Moxon acknowledged that the back-up bowling had been disappointing in the emphatic FP Trophy Roses defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday.

"I thought we bowled pretty well against Worcestershire Royals but in our defeats by Leicestershire Foxes and Lancashire Lightning we started well enough but did not maintain it after the 15 overs stage and this is something we are having to look at," he said.

Although Yorkshire are pleased to have Kruis back, they will not be happy at being without wicketkeeper-batsman Gerard Brophy who misses his first Championship match of the season because of a cracked left knuckle.

Brophy is in the form of his life with the bat, having scored 326 runs at an average of 65.20. He followed up his 80 against Durham with an unbeaten century off Hampshire's attack at the Rose Bowl.

Fortunately for Yorkshire, Simon Guy is in fine form behind the stumps himself and he will be looking to his call-up as an opportunity to show that he too is capable of racking up some big scores.

Guy stood in for Brophy on the final day of the Worcester-shire Championship match when Brophy was troubled both by his knuckle injury and a blow on the right hand.

Guy has also kept wicket in three of Yorkshire's FP Trophy games.

Moxon said the good news about Brophy was that he should be fit again in about ten days' time.

Yorkshire have also been concerned about the fitness of opening batsman Craig White, who was struck on the right forearm on Sunday by Dominic Cork, but he is expected to be fit to play.

Yorkshire (v Durham): White, Sayers, McGrath, Younus Khan, Rudolph, Guy, Rashid, Bresnan, Gough, Gillespie, Kruis.

  • Former Yorkshire batsman Darren Lehmann is fighting deep vein thrombosis after surgery on a damaged Achilles tendon.

Lehmann was attending a routine check-up when the condition was diagnosed, although physio John Porter believes it will not stop him playing for South Australia when the domestic season starts in October.

"It has been identified early and Darren will undergo blood-thinning treatment for the next three months," said Porter.

"We are confident that this will not delay his recovery from the Achilles operation and that he will be fit to play."