Great Britain will have to make history to reach the new-look Fed Cup Finals via their qualifier against Slovakia.
Anne Keothavong's side are bidding to win a best-of-five away tie for the first time, having lost all four previous World Group II play-offs away to Sweden in 2012, Argentina in 2013, Romania in 2017 and Japan in 2018.
And they face a tough task on clay in Bratislava, with Johanna Konta and Katie Boulter making themselves unavailable for selection.
In the absence of world number 14 Konta, who is focusing on this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo, Britain's highest-ranked player Heather Watson (74th) will face Anna Schmiedlova in the opening singles rubber on Friday.
Harriet Dart will then take on Slovakia's number one Viktoria Kuzmova in the second singles rubber, with debutants Naiktha Bains and Emma Raducanu named to face Kuzmova and Magdalena Rybarikova in Saturday's doubles.
"The Slovakian team are the favourites," Keothavong said. "They have home support, choice of surface and players who have performed well in Fed Cup in the past.
"Yes, we are without our top player in Johanna Konta, but it is what it is. As captain I just have to prepare the players who are fit and healthy and ready to play in the best way possible.
"Come match day I'm confident that they'll be as well prepared as possible and give a good account of themselves."
Watson, who reached the semi-finals of the Hobart International last month, added: "It's not ideal to be on clay in the middle of hard court season, but personally I actually like this court.
"It's quite fast, not too slippy and yesterday I practised really well so I'm happy.
"Fed Cup is a different competition and everyone's got different emotions going into it - you're playing for your country and for your team and in this competition you get some interesting results so anything can happen."
The winner of the tie will join 11 other teams at the Fed Cup Finals in Budapest from April 14-19.
Last year's winners France, runners-up Australia and hosts Hungary have already secured a place in the finals, along with 11-time champions the Czech Republic, who were given a wild card.
The remaining eight teams will be decided by the qualifying ties, which include Latvia away to a daunting United States side featuring Serena Williams, Coco Gauff and newly-crowned Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
The 12 finalists will be divided into four groups of three, with the winner of each group advancing to the semi-finals.
