Alec Stewart must piece together his Surrey side as they bid to do the double in the final month of the season.

They lead Vitality County Championship Division One by 23 points going into the last five matches, starting with Thursday’s home date against Lancashire at the Kia Oval, and await Durham in the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast, also on home soil, on Tuesday, September 3.

Working his way through the thicket of international commitments and franchise tournaments has often seen Stewart resembling a man doing a jigsaw wearing a blindfold and his final few weeks as director of cricket – having given notice at the start of the season that he will be quitting – could be the most complicated of his decade in charge.

This week’s first Test between England and Sri Lanka has taken away Ollie Pope – deputising as captain for Ben Stokes – plus Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson and Dan Lawrence.

There were no overseas signings at the time of going to press, Australia having selected all-rounder Sean Abbott for the one-day international series against England in September and then added him to the T20 party when Spencer Johnson – highly successful in the Blast for Surrey in the opening eight games – went down injured. Only players who have appeared in the group stages can play in the knockouts.

Surrey will be helped if both Sam Curran and Will Jacks, who have spent all season playing white ball cricket for country, county and Oval Invincibles in the Hundred, are free to play at least a couple of Championship matches. All-rounder Curran was player of the competition for helping Invincibles retain the trophy and might have been considered a candidate to fill in for Stokes.

Surrey seem unlikely to get back Smith – keeping for England but Surrey’s most successful Championship batter – or Atkinson before the end of the campaign, both being possibilities for the white ball matches against Australia. And while Pope is unlikely to feature in those, he may well be rested following a busy summer including six Tests and with England’s tour of Pakistan looming in October.

Should Surrey, who finished top of South Group, beat Durham in the last eight they will progress to finals day at Edgbaston on Saturday, September 14. But that has complications of its own given England’s T20 series with Australia clashes with that weekend. Following the unsuccessful attempt to retain the World T20, earlier this summer in the Caribbean, England are likely to make some changes and it would be a surprise were Jacks and Curran – squad members but used little – were not part of their plans to rebuild.

Stewart set out success in the shortest competition as one of his targets for the season, having reached the final in 2013 and 2020 only to be beaten. Winning the Championship for a third successive year would make Surrey the first team to claim a hat-trick since Yorkshire between 1966 and 1968.

By Richard Spiller