Rixon won't panic despite Surrey's one-day woes

Steve Rixon has a short and simple message for Surrey fans alarmed by their county's early-season struggles: "Trust me."

Surrey, many people's favourites for most competitions, began Rixon's second year in charge by getting the better of a home draw with Sussex, but since then they have been thrashed in both of their totesport Sunday league matches and lost at The Oval over three days to the students from Bradford-Leeds Centre of Excellence.

"Our batting was outstanding in the Sussex game and I saw some very good things there," said Rixon. "But I'm not so excited about our one-day performances [losing heavily to both Yorkshire and Durham] and we have to rethink what we are doing there.

"As for the university game, the result doesn't concern me - even though it was embarrassing - because some of our younger players got a lot out of it and we had so many injuries by the end."

It is those injuries that are undermining Surrey with Martin Bicknell (hamstring), Azhar Mahmood (shins), Ian Salisbury (side) and captain Mark Butcher (wrist) on the sidelines. But Rikki Clarke (ankle) was expected to return today and Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh may arrive in time for Friday week's championship meeting with Notts.

Middlesex, meanwhile, travel to defending champions Warwickshire today hopeful of giving a championship debut to their New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris.