ANDREW Strauss's decision not to tour Bangladesh this winter is about to pay handsome dividends for Middlesex.

The England skipper took a well publicised break from the international game following the end of the winter tour to South Africa but now may play in as many as SEVEN County Championship games for Shaun Udal’s men leading up to the first Test match against Bangladesh on May 27.

That would mean the 33-year-old playing almost half the club’s County Championship programme as they bid to return to the four-day games top tier.

Director of Cricket Angus Fraser said: "We had an email from the England management team saying he was available for all our cricket before the first Test against Bangladesh.

"Whether that remains the case we’ll have to wait and see. I think it’s something of a suck it and see.

"We’ve got to respect Andrew in terms of what he wants to do and how he is feeling, but we are pretty confident he is going to play most if not all the cricket before the first Test.

The news will come as a massive boost to the Panthers who start the campaign on Friday at Worcester missing both Owais Shah and Eoin Morgan, still away at the IPL.

And in another coup for the Lords’ tenants, they revealed Aussie ‘wunderkid’ David Warner as their second overseas player for this season’s Twenty/20 campaign.

The 23-year-old made the second fastest Twenty/20 international 50 in history on debut against South Africa in January 2009 en route to scoring 89 off just 43 balls.

He is expected to play in 13 or 14 of Middlesex’s 16 games in the competition, and open the batting in all five games at Lord’s with fellow countryman Adam Gilchrist.

Chief Executive Vinny Codrington said: "David is one of the World’s most explosive and talented Twenty/20 batsman and we are delighted he has chosen to come to Middlesex to open the batting with Adam."