Alex Gidman fears Gloucestershire's brittle batting could cost them promotion to Division One of the County Championship.

Although the team remains in contention for a top-two finish with four games remaining, Gloucestershire CCC are coming under pressure after losing to Leicestershire in their last outing.

Shot out for a meagre 160 in their first innings at Grace Road, Gloucestershire eventually went down by 44 runs, in the process losing ground in the race to escape Division Two.

Gidman insists his team can put things right against Middlesex at Lord's over the next four days, but only if the top-order batting displays increased resolve.

He admitted: "There's no doubt our batting is costing us at the moment. Once again, we did not make nearly enough runs in our first innings against Leicestershire and we got exactly what we deserved – nothing.

" It's not difficult to see where we are going wrong, and we were always up against it after our first innings at Leicester.

"It's an area in which we have to improve, and the top five in particular have to start taking responsibility and realise exactly what is required.

"We missed out on a great opportunity in the last match – Derbyshire losing may have helped us, but we allowed those teams immediately behind us to close the gap."

Middlesex will be weakened by the absence of England batsmen Andrew Strauss, Eoin Morgan and Owais Shah, who are all on one-day international duty, and Gidman is confident he and his team-mates can take advantage.

He said: "This is probably a very good time to play Middlesex, because their batting will be nowhere near as strong as it can be.

"We're in there fighting and, if you had offered me this position at the start of the season, I would have taken it."

Gloucestershire CCC omitted senior fast bowlers Jon Lewis, Steve Kirby and James Franklin for Tuesday's Pro-40 League game against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in order to give them a rest ahead of today's match at Lord's.

Gidman confirmed: "Those three come back into the side and, hopefully, will be fresh and ready to go after taking a well-earned break.

"A lot of bowlers are carrying little injuries and niggles at this stage of the season and it's important to give them time to recover whenever possible. Those guys helped us beat Middlesex by 10 wickets in Bristol earlier in the season and will again be key figures, especially as conditions should suit them at Lord's."

Gloucestershire (from): Porterfield, Ali, Woodman, Marshall, Gidman, Taylor, Franklin, Adshead, Dawson, Lewis, Saxelby, Kirby, Ireland.