Munsey and Wood to feature in new-look Hampshire XI for T20 Vitality Blast campaign

Due to covid-19, there is no Kyle Abbott or Rilee Roussow. There are no overseas signings at all, Kolpak or otherwise.

Due to injury, there is no Liam Dawson or Aneurin Donald.

And James Vince’s availability is in doubt due to the imminent arrival of his second child - a family commitment which has ruled him out of the entire Bob Willis Trophy campaign so far.

Hampshire, therefore, could be without four of last summer’s top five runscorers in the shortest form of the game - Vince (407), Dawson (232), Donald (203) and Rossouw (174).

That would leave a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Sam Northeast, second highest scorer in 2019 with 272 runs, when the 2020 Blast season starts with a visit to his former county Kent on Thursday (2pm).

Scotland international George Munsey has been signed to provide quick runs at the top of the order.

There is a good chance he will provide them - Munsey whacked 14 sixes last September racing to 127 not out off 56 balls while playing against the Netherlands in a tri-series game in Dublin.

The following month he collected another man of the match award for hitting 65 off 43 balls in a 2020 World Cup qualifying win against the UAE in Dubai.

The previous year Munsey had lashed 71 off 34 balls against the Netherlands in another T20 outing.

He also belted 147 off just 39 balls - including 20 sixes - while playing in a T20 friendly for Gloucestershire against Bath CC in 2019.

The standard of bowling is likely to be a great deal higher in the Blast, but Munsey could prove to be a canny signing by Hampshire.

He will certainly be aiming to make a bigger impression than he did for Leicestershire in his first stint of county cricket.

Munsey played three games for Leicestershire in 2019, without much success.

He scored 6 and 1 in two Royal London Cup ties, and was also out for a single in a T20 game against the touring Pakistanis at Leicester.

The T20 Blast will see a first 1st XI appearance of 2020 for seamer Chris Wood, who is on a white-ball only contract.

Wood is Hampshire’s leading T20 wicket-taker of all time, with 131 victims, but the county do lack a strike bowler with Abbott unavailable.

In Dawson’s absence, Mason Crane - a T20 international for England three years ago, lest we forget - will shoulder the spin bowling responsibilities.

Felix Organ has provided a slow bowling option in the Willis Trophy, but he is expected to be replaced by Munsey at the top of the batting order in the Blast games.