Having established themselves as one of the best limited-overs sides in the country, Hampshire have set their sights on proving their mettle in the four-day game in 2015.
Kevin Howells (BBC radio)
This side has some serious talent put in the right frame of mind by Dale Benkenstein. Questions over bowling teams out but Gareth Berg is a useful acquisition. Staying up will be a good platform. Genuine one-day threat.
David Fulton (Sky Sports News)
I think they’ll consolidate. They look to me like a First Division set-up. Benkenstein and Giles White are a good coaching team. The batting is especially strong, with Vince, Carberry, Adams, Dawson and Ervine.
At the age of 25 Liam Dawson has already won what many on the county circuit would consider a decent career medal haul.
The spin-bowling all-rounder has already won two one-day finals at Lord’s, and was part of Hampshire’s victorious Twenty20 side in 2012.
Despite his 2014 campaign being disrupted by injury, Dawson added an LV= County Championship Division Two winner’s medal to his collection, and now the slow left-arm bowler is relishing the challenge of top-flight cricket for the first time since 2011.
“Obviously it was frustrating last year missing two months of the season; it was the first time I’ve been properly injured in my career and it was a frustrating time and hopefully this season there will be no more injuries,” Dawson told ecb.co.uk.
“I’m feeling in a good place with my game, so I’m looking forward to the season and being back in Division One.
“We’ll be going to all the best grounds in England so looking forward to that obviously and we’re looking forward to testing ourselves against the best sides.
“I want to play all formats and contribute like I have in recent years. Hopefully I’ll be a consistent performer with bat and ball and in the field.
“I think staying up is the first aim which I think we’ll do, then as a group let’s see where we are come August time and if we can put a good run together. Then who knows where you can finish because it only takes a couple of wins and you’re right up there, and a couple of losses and you’re down the bottom.
“I think it’s going to be competitive, so as I said let’s get to August and see where we go from there.
“I think there’s a few of us that have played in Division One – it is different but it’s an exciting challenge. You’re facing the best bowlers in the country and you’re bowling to the best batters so if you aspire to play for England and you do well in Division One then I’m sure people look at that, and that’s only a positive thing.
“I think we’ll be very competitive in one-day cricket as we always are: we’ve got a pretty good formula, we know what to do, and we’ve done fairly well in big games so that’s part of the season to look forward to. I think in one-day cricket realistically we can dominate like we have in the last few years.”
Former England Under-19 captain Dawson, who expects to bat at five this season, will compete with Danny Briggs for the spinner’s berth at the Ageas Bowl.
And they will compliment a revamped seam attack, with Matt Coles departing and Andre Adams, Gareth Berg, Yasir Arafat, Jackson Bird and Fidel Edwards arriving.
Briggs also believes a squad boasting a strong batting line-up containing Michael Carberry and James Vince can aim higher than scrapping for survival in the four-day game.
“I’m excited for the new season, it’s been a good winter,” Briggs, who has represented England eight times, told ecb.co.uk.
“I feel in a good place and the squad’s shaped up really well for the start of the season.
“I think we’ve got to take it in steps really. To stay up is the first port of call and then hopefully develop that into a title run.
“We’ve just got to start the season well and go from there, but we’ve got a squad where we haven’t really got any limits – we could go anywhere with the squad we’ve got.
“Last year we were winning matches and it was nice to contribute to that, and be part of a bowling unit that was working well the whole year, so it was nice to go into that team.
“We’ve got a few more seamers which is nice, we needed a bit of strength in depth. It’s shaping up well - if we can keep everyone fit it will create competition for places which is another thing that could help us. Hopefully it will be strong enough to compete in all forms.
“From history you’d say any of the one-day cricket is probably our best chance of a trophy, but if we have a good start in four-day cricket you don’t know where that can go.”
Hampshire
Captain: Jimmy Adams (LV= County Championship), James Vince (NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup)
Director of cricket: Giles White
In: Andre Adams (Nottinghamshire), Jackson Bird (Australia), Yasir Arafat (Pakistan), Gareth Berg (Middlesex), Owais Shah (free agent), Fidel Edwards (West Indies)
Out: David Balcombe (Surrey), Ruel Brathwaite (released), Michael Bates (released), Matt Coles (Kent)