BURNLEY'S James Anderson retained his place in the Lancashire squad for their Championship match against Kent at Liverpool today.

The former England Under 19 player, who took four wickets in the last Championship match against Surrey at Old Trafford three weeks ago, is battling it out with with John Wood to be third seamer.

Team-mate Kyle Hogg, however, has been taken out of the firing line.

The 18-year-old all-rounder, who turns 19 next week, has been an ever-present in the five Championship games so far this season after making such an impressive impact on his debut against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in April.

But skipper Warren Hegg explained: "He's played a lot of cricket this year and at the moment we think it's best for him to have a bit of a rest. It's certainly not a dropping, because he's done fantastically well for us."

Ryan Driver was also included in the squad for the first time this season in the Championship after a solid all-round performance in the National League defeat at Derby last Sunday.

Lancashire have happy memories of their last Championship game at Liverpool two years ago, when they beat Hampshire by an inningswith the key contributions from Mike Smethurst, Andy Flintoff and Neil Fairbrother.

But they did not do so well in three Benson and Hedges Cup group games at the Aigburth ground on the banks of the Mersey last season, beating Derbyshire but losing to Yorkshire and Durham - defeats which cost them a place in the quarter finals.

"It's a great place to play cricket, one of our best outgrounds," added Hegg. "The wicket is always good and the outfield is fantastic.

"The last couple of times we've been there the ball has swung around a bit, so hopefully our guys can exploit that."

Kent were missing their captain Matthew Fleming with a leg injury so opener David Fulton, who already leads the team in one-day cricket, stepped in.