All the ins and outs as Northants gear up for the new County Championship campaign

It has been a winter of change at Wantage Road, with the main one seeing a new man at the helm in former Australia player and coach Darren Lehmann, who has taken over from John Sadler, whose three-year reign ended last September.

Two mainstays of the first team for the past few years, seam bowler Jack White and opening batter Emilio Gay, have also departed for pastures new, while the summer will begin without any overseas players in the squad.

South African batter Matthew Breetzke was due to play the first two months of the Championship, but is instead playing in the Indian Premier League.

He is still due to play for the Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast.

Reinforcements are on the way in the shape of Australian pace bowler Harry Conway and Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, but not until later in the campaign, with Conway arriving for a four-match stint in May, and Chahal heading over from mid-June onwards.

So Lehmann will be working with the squad as it stands in the opening weeks of the campaign, with two more four-day fixtures to come in April against Lancashire (April 11) at Old Trafford and Derbyshire (April 18) in Derby.

The new coach will be keen to get the season off to a positive start against Kent and says he will be targeting a top two finish and promotion, but knows that is easier said than done.

Asked if he is aiming to win promotion, Lehmann said: “That is everyone's aim isn't it?

"But the simple fact of life is that only two go up, so you have to make sure you are in the hunt by June and July for those middle games and then at the back end.

"You have to play well early, when the weather will play its part, the wickets will play a part, injuries will play a part, but hopefully everything goes to plan for us and we are playing some decent cricket."

Going into the summer, the County have gone with a more inexperienced line-up, with the only incomings to date being pace bowlers Dom Leech and Liam Guthrie, but what of their division two rivals?

Here we run the rule over the ins and outs and overseas signings of Northants and their opponents.

Derbyshire

Ins: Martin Andersson (Middlesex), Jack Morley (Lancashire)

Outs: Sam Conners (Durham)

Overseas players: Caleb Jewell (Australia), Blair Tickner (New Zealand), AM Ghazanfar (Afghanistan - Vitality Blast)

Glamorgan

Ins: Ned Leonard (Somerset), Shoaib Bashir (Somerset - on loan for first three County Championship matches)

Outs: Harry Podmore, Prem Sisodiya (both retired)

Overseas players: Colin Ingram (South Africa), Asitha Fernando (Sri Lanka - first seven County Championship games)

Gloucestershire

Ins: None

Outs: Zafar Gohar (Middlesex)

Overseas players: Cameron Bancroft (Australia), Cameron Green (Australia - five County Championship matches across April and May)

Kent

Ins: Chris Benjamin (Warwickshire), Corey Flintoff (Lancashire)

Outs: Hamidullah Qadri, Arafat Bhuiyan (both released)

Overseas players: Kashif Ali (Pakistan - April and May), Keith Dudgeon (South Africa - April and May), Wes Agar (Australia - end of May onwards), Tom Rogers (Australia - Vitality Blast)

Lancashire

Ins: Michael Jones (Durham)

Outs: Jack Morley (Derbyshire), Corey Flintoff (Kent), George Lavelle (released), Steven Croft (retired)

Overseas players: Marcus Harris (Australia - County Championship and One Day Cup), Anderson Phillip (West Indies), Chris Green (Australia - Vitality Blast), Ashton Turner (Australia - Vitality Blast)

Leicestershire

Ins: Ben Green (Somerset - on loan for first seven County Championship matches)

Outs: Sam Evans (released)

Overseas players: Peter Handscomb (Australia), Logan van Beek (Netherlands), Shan Masood (Pakistan, from May 31)

Middlesex

Ins: Ben Geddes (Surrey), Zafar Gohar (Gloucestershire)

Outs: Martin Andersson (Derbyshire), Mark Stoneman (Hampshire), Ethan Bamber (Warwickshire), Thilan Walallawita (released), Robbie White (retired)

Overseas players: Kane Williamson (New Zealand - at least five County Championship matches plus at least 10 Vitality Blast games), Dane Paterson (South Africa - County Championship in April and May), Josh Little (Ireland - mainly for the Vitality Blast)

Northants

Ins: Dom Leech (Yorkshire), Liam Guthrie

Outs: Emilio Gay (Durham), Jack White (Yorkshire), Alex Russell, George Gowler, George Weldon (all released)

Overseas players: Matthew Breetzke (South Africa - Vitality Blast), Harry Conway (Australia - four County Championship matches in May), Ashton Agar (Australia - Vitality Blast), Yuzvendra Chahal (India - County Championship and One Day Cup, from June 22)