Take three internationals out of any side in any sport and you are going to weaken it.

Which is why it is unfair to make too many predictions on how Sussex's summer will pan out on the basis of their County Championship opener against Warwickshire.

The absence of Matt Prior is bad enough but the county are also without two bowlers who between them took 117 Championship wickets last season in Rana Naved and James Kirtley.

Their absence was keenly felt on the second day at Hove as Warwickshire, fortified by a third century in four games against Sussex from Jonathan Trott, closed on 308-5 in reply to Sussex's 302.

There was no lack of effort from the supporting cast on a day when, it has to be said, much of the cricket matched the grey, cheerless weather.

Ideally, skipper Chris Adams would like Kirtley and Rana to share the new ball against Hampshire next week but it remains to be seen whether Kirtley considers himself ready. He missed more match practice when a second team friendly against Hampshire yesterday was rained off.

Cricket manager Mark Robinson refuses to speculate on a return date for his fast bowler.

He said: I want James to be bowling for Sussex for the next three or four years so it's important that we get to a situation where James feels 100 per cent right with his action. Every day is a day of discovery for him at the moment.

Looking long-term the perfect scenario for Sussex would be to have the option of recruiting a batsman rather than a like-for-like replacement for Rana when he links up with Pakistan in two months time.

If that is to happen they need Duncan Spencer to show enough in his month-long trial to convince Sussex to offer him a longer contract.

It is unfair to make a proper judgement on Spencer on the basis of this match his first in first-class cricket for 12 years.

He has only been in England for a week and he won't have encountered too many of the slow, low pitches this game is being played on back in Perth.

His four overs yesterday cost 27 runs when it was evident that it will take him a while to adjust his length to suit English conditions.

Luke Wright bowled a couple of lively spells up the hill and was rewarded with two wickets. He beat the bat regularly and the ball which removed Alex Loudon near the end was genuinely quick.

Wright unseated nightwatchman Freddie Klokker, who added 66 for the second wicket with Nick Knight, in between two rain breaks during the first session when he got one to move off the seam.

Jason Lewry is clearly feeling his way after a pre-season which was interrupted by a back problem and yesterday he was troubled by damp footholds.

That meant Robin Martin-Jenkins had to shoulder a greater burden than he has been used to in the last couple of years but he responded with a quality ten-over spell during the afternoon which brought him the 250th first-class wicket of his career.

It was a decent scalp too when Knight, who looked on course for a hundred, checked a drive and gave extra cover an easy catch. His 73 included nine fours and came off 119 balls. By then Mushtaq Ahmed was well into an unbroken spell between lunch and tea at the sea end.

It must have been hard for the little man to feel his fingers on such a raw day but he should still have been celebrating a wicket or two.

Loudon was nearly run out without scoring but Wright's shy from the covers was inches wide of the stumps at the nonstriker's end and on four he was dropped by Mike Yardy at slip when the ball deflected off Andrew Hodd's gloves.

Trott scored 134 on his debut against Sussex in 2003 and a maiden double-hundred at Edgbaston last season so when he was dropped at slip by Yardy on 56, again off the luckless Mushtaq, Sussex would have feared the worst.

The fourth-wicket pair put on 134 in 45 overs before Loudon gloved an attempted hook off Wright just after the third stoppage of the day for rain. Martin-Jenkins struck again just before the close when he had Trott caught behind for 109 (221 balls, 11 fours) and with two new batsmen, and a new ball up their sleeves this morning, Sussex will be fired up to restrict their first innings deficit to manageable proportions.