IT is all change at Hampshire.

James Vince is now captain in all formats, leg-spin prodigy Mason Crane is making his LV County Championship debut in place of Danny Briggs and Liam Dawson is back from his Essex loan spell.

Hampshire coach Dale Benkenstein also handed a home debut to wicketkeeper Lewis McManus, one of four changes to the side thrashed by Worcestershire for the visit of his former Durham teammates, after ‘personal reasons’ made Adam Wheater unavailable.

After winning the toss, Durham closed the first day on 278-6. It could have been much better for Hampshire, who dropped two slip catches.

Dawson put down Scott Borthwick (49) on 15 and Gareth Berg shelled Usman Arshad off Jackson Bird before he had made the first of his 19 unbeaten runs.

Most costly of all was a missed stumping off Michael Carberry’s off-spin that would have dismissed Gordon Muchall for 38. Muchall will begin day two on 85 (201 balls, eight fours).

The sight of 18 year-old Crane bowling 20 overs (0-51) was a wonderful consolation. He first came on for the penultimate over before lunch, with Durham 88-3.

Bird (21-6-80-3) had trapped Mark Stoneman (0) lbw with the fifth ball of the match and James Tomlinson (18-5-47-2), recalled in place of Brad Wheal, pinned Championship debutant Graham Clark (8) before Durham captain Paul Collingwood (8) drove to Jimmy Adams at extra cover.

Dawson trapped Borthwick lbw with one that kept low as Durham’s leading scorer tried to pull the last ball of the morning.

Crane’s encouraging second spell (11-2-32-0) began in the 16th over after lunch and he followed that with 6-1-11-0 before ending the day with 2-0-5-0 with the second new ball only 13 overs old.

Rarely can a wicketless performance have been so encouraging. “A young leg-spinner is always exciting and Mason bowled really well, better than I expected,” said coach Benkenstein, who would have selected Brad Taylor but for the off-spinner’s injured finger.

“Vincey felt he had little to lose and Mason’s bowled very consistently, which is unusual for a young leg-spinner.

“He’s a bit of an unknown and has an X-factor. It won’t get easier against him on a slower, spinning, wicket.”

Michael Richardson (91) reached fifty with an edge through the slips against Crane, during a fifth-wicket stand of 142 with Muchall, before becoming the first of two wickets in two balls for Bird.