ON the face of it, it has been a miserable season for Hampshire so far.

When they play their next match against Essex on Friday, Hampshire will be aiming to avoid their worst-ever run of T20 results, after four successive defeats either side of the controversial abandonment of their home game against Sussex.

It has not gone much better in the Specsavers County Championship. Hampshire will begin their next four-day game, against Somerset at The Ageas Bowl on Sunday, bottom of division one.

They have fared a little better in the One-Day Cup.

Thanks largely to the brilliance of Liam Dawson, they will still be in contention to qualify for the quarter-finals of the 50-over competition when they begin the second half of their group campaign on July 26.

But there have been several mitigating factors for their poor form.

The catalogue of injuries, for one.

We had an idea it was going to be one of those seasons when England’s Reece Topley, the club’s high-profile signing from Essex, fractured a hand while batting on debut - before he had even had a chance to bowl a ball for his new county.

The prospect of Topley and Fidel Edwards sharing the new ball for Hampshire had whetted the appetite in pre-season. But two weeks after Topley was injured, Edwards fractured his ankle during a game of football on the Headingley outfield, as Hampshire warmed up before the last day of their Championship match against Yorkshire.

Hampshire were already without Gareth Berg, the county’s Player of the Year after a stellar debut season, and Ryan Stevenson.

Their bowling resources took another hit when England U19 captain Brad Taylor, a highly promising all-rounder, sprained his ankle when his studs caught in the ground sponsor’s signage as he made his way down a set of steps.

Then Chris Wood had to undergo a knee operation which has ruled him out for the season.

Wood and Danny Briggs - who left to improve his four-day chances with Sussex last year - have taken 183 T20 wickets between them for Hampshire so were always going to be difficult to replace.

Hampshire have done well to bring in Tino Best and overseas duo Darren Sammy and Shahid Afridi.

But their star dust has been no substitute for a formula that had helped Hampshire reach six successive Finals Day (and seven consecutive T20 quarter-finals), from 2010-2015 - two of which they won.

Having lost two totems of their T20 attack, Hampshire’s top three was decimated by injuries to Michael Carberry and Adam Wheater and James Vince’s England call-up.

Those three all played against Somerset on Sunday, but could not prevent a five-wicket defeat that means Hampshire need at least six wins from their last seven games to qualify for the quarter-finals.

That is a form sequence Hampshire have enjoyed many times in recent years, but they are a side in transition.

Only six survivors from last season’s semi-final against Lancashire have featured at all this year and there have only been four ever-presents (Will Smith, Dawson, Tino Best and Sean Ervine).

More concerning is a Championship seam attack that includes several players in their mid-thirties.

Berg is 35, Best and James Tomlinson are both 34, Ervine is 33 and Edwards will be 35 by the time he is fit.

Hampshire also have opening batsmen with a combined age of 70 in Jimmy Adams and Carberry, both of whom are 35.

Of the current Championship side, only Vince, Dawson and Wheater are in their mid-twenties, the age when players are approaching their prime.

But, amid the gloom, there has been encouragement this season in the green shoots of Tom Alsop, Lewis McManus and Mason Crane.

Leg-spinner Crane, having made a big impression last year, played a key role in the only Championship of the season when he took 6-89 against Notts last month.

At Radlett CC a fortnight ago, he came on in difficult circumstances, with Middlesex 81-0 after ten overs in the One-Day Cup and Brendon McCullum looking set for a big one But he was the catalyst for another memorable win as he took the prize scalps of Dawid Malan, McCullum and Eoin Morgan before finishing with 4-80.

It will be fascinating to see how well he does in the Championship when conditions are in is favour in the second half of the season.

Should he do well, the 19 year-old could even come into the reckoning to tour India with the full England squad later this year.

Alsop, a left-handed opening batsmen who has been prolific for the 2nd XI, admits he has surprised himself with the impact he has had in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

The 20 year-old from Devizes is a former England U19 hockey international whose game was developed by the same coach, Alan Crouch, who brought James Vince and Liam Dawson through the Wiltshire ranks.

He has 249 runs at 124.5 runs in three innings after his match-winning maiden century against Surrey at The Ageas Bowl last week.

Of the 50-over competition’s top 20 run scorers this season, only Michael Lumb is averaging more.

All being well, Alsop and his former England U19 teammate Joe Weatherley, who has made his debut in two formats this year, will develop into Hampshire’s next long-term opening partnership.

The form of Lewis McManus, the wicketkeeper-batsman from Bournemouth (and son of former Swanage Town and Dorchester Town footballer Andy McManus) has also been encouraging.

McManus has not played in the Championship since his unbeaten 53 secured Hampshire the remarkable draw against Durham last July from which the county began their Great Escape.

But the 21 year-old’s wicketkeeping has also been very accomplished in the three One-Day Cup games in which he has deputised for Wheater - and he has also scored useful runs in both limited-overs competitions.