Hampshire will begin their Specsavers County Championship campaign against a Yorkshire side without many of their best players.

The 2014 and 2015 county champions are without England trio Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Adil Rashid, who have been rested by the ECB.

And seamers Jack Brooks, Liam Plunkett, Ryan Sidebottom, David Willey and Matthew Fisher are all ruled out through injury.

In their absence, Ben Coad is set for only his second Specsavers County Championship appearance for a Yorkshire side now captained by former England batsman Gary Ballance.

The 23-year-old  seamer is likely to play alongside Tim Bresnan and Steve Patterson, Yorkshire’s only fit senior quicks, and Josh Shaw, who encouraged on loan at Gloucestershire last year.

Coad impressed on his county’s pre-season tour of Dubai and again earlier this week in a three-day clash with the students of Leeds Bradford MCC Universities.

He claimed 2-17 from 15 overs in the first innings of the White Rose win, including nine maidens and five out of his first six overs, and added 1-21 from 15 in the second.

“Coady’s lines and lengths were outstanding against Leeds/Bradford,” added coach Andrew Gale. “He hardly bowled a bad ball.

“We’ve worked hard with him on hitting the pitch a little bit harder, not bowling that floaty half volley, and changing his role a bit.

“People put him in the Steve Patterson category, but I think he’s very different to Patto. He’s not a guy who will just come in and build pressure. He’s got good skills. If he hits the pitch hard, he’ll get wickets.”

Brooks is out for between four and six weeks having sustained a second calf injury since the turn of the year, while Plunkett and Sidebottom are set to miss the first two or three rounds.

Fisher and Willey both played second XI cricket earlier this week after respective groin and shoulder injuries, and it is just a case of building up match fitness with those two.

New Hampshire head coach Craig White is a Yorkshire legend after scoring 10,376 runs at 34.01 and taking 276 wickets at 27.7 in 221 first-class matches for the White Rose county from 1990-2007.

He said: “It might be the best time to play Yorkshire, without their international lads – but they’ll still be very strong.

“The first division is going to be an incredible standard and hopefully we’ll be at the top end of it.

“Twenty-five per cent of the eight teams will be going back into the second division at the end of it so it’s going to be a bun fight and very exciting to be a part of.”