Ollie Rayner has jumped ahead of his rivals to land a place in Sussex's table-topping Championship team.

The off-spinner, who made a century on his first-class debut against Sri Lanka earlier this month, will make his Championship bow against Middlesex at Horsham today (11am).

The 21-year-old comes in for Mike Yardy who will discover today how long he will be sidelined after dislocating a finger in the C&G Trophy win over Somerset on Monday.

Sussex considered replacing Yardy with another specialist batsman but instead they have opted to play a second spinner on a ground which traditionally offers assistance to slow bowlers.

Cricket manager Mark Robinson said: "None of the second team batsmen have got runs to warrant selection yet. To be fair their fixture list so far has been spasmodic and there has been some bad weather about.

"But Ollie has got as many runs as anyone in second-team cricket and also made a proper hundred against Sri Lanka so he definitely deserves his chance.

"Choosing him is an attacking option. They have a lot of left-handers so he could cause problems turning the ball away from the bat and he's also our second-best slip fielder behind Chris Adams.

"It's a like-for-like replacement in many ways because Yards is our second spinner and specialist slip fielder."

Rayner will probably bat at seven which means Murray Goodwin, Chris Adams and Matt Prior, who is keen to bat at five anyway, all moving up a place.

Robinson added: "There was an argument for playing Chris Nash on his home ground. He's a talented player and his time will come but for many reasons we could not ignore Ollie - it's an exciting move and gives us a very attacking team."

Yardy underwent minor surgery on the second finger on his left hand yesterday and will discover today whether he has suffered any tendon damage. If he has he could be looking at a lengthy lay-off.

"The best case scenario will be to patch Yards up and make sure he can manage the pain," added Robinson.

"It was quite a bad dislocation and the surgeon wanted to make sure quickly there was no tendon damage."