Stuart Broad looking forward to getting season started with Nottinghamshire

Stuart Broad is expecting an exciting start to the County Championship season with plenty of England players available to their teams.

Broad, who was not involved in England's World Twenty20 squad, is expected to feature for Nottinghamshire when they open their Division One campaign at home to Surrey on Sunday.

And he could be joined in the early fixtures by a number of his Test colleagues, including seamer James Anderson and captain Alastair Cook, with England not playing their first Test of the summer until May 19 against Sri Lanka.

"It's exciting," Broad told Sky Sports News HQ. "We've got a really big summer ahead as an England side. We've got seven out of the nine Test trophies available to us, and the two we don't have are Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who we play this year.

"I think every player will want to hit the ground running. We've got Yorkshire coming here to Trent Bridge [starting on May 1] which will be a fantastic game, full of international players. I'm not sure bowling to Joe Root will be much fun but we'll see how we go.

"The start of the year is so important to counties to get up the table, try and win your first three or four games and make a really good start to your season. 

"We've just had [Australia bowler] Jackson Bird arrive today. Don't know if he is playing this week against Cambridge MCCU, but he'll be ready to go for Sunday.

"We look like we should have a strong side and it's our aim to hit the ground running, starting with Surrey."

County cricket will see changes this season, doing away with mandatory coin tosses, with visiting sides getting the choice whether to bat first. Only if the visiting captain declines to bat will a toss take place.

"It's an interesting one," Broad added. "A lot of the wickets I have played on in Division One have been really good. I think it's maybe aimed a little more at Division Two where teams are trying to get out of the division, creating wickets that do a bit.

"A lot of the seamers who got wickets in Division Two last season were under 80mph which proves the wickets were doing too much.

"But I know from playing in the Ashes, winning the toss and bowling at Trent Bridge can be a good thing. It will be interesting to see what kind of wickets are prepared."