Lehmann excited by new-look Hampshire

Australian batter Jake Lehmann says he's "excited" to work with Hampshire's new-look coaching set-up and young players with "potential".

The 33-year-old has signed a two-year deal to play all formats in 2026 and 2027. Lehmann helped South Australia win last season's Sheffield Shield for the first time in 29 years.

Hampshire have recently announced South African Russell Domingo as their new head coach, supported by new bowling coach, former Scotland head coach Shane Burger, and ex-club captain Jimmy Adams who remains as batting coach.

That coaching team will lead an exciting crop of players including opening bat Fletcha Middleton, 23, batters Ali Orr and Toby Albert, both 24, and all-rounder Tom Prest, 22, while academy prospect Ben Mayes, who debuted in August, only turned 18 in November.

With the ball in hand John Turner, 24, and another right-arm pacer Sonny Baker, 22, have both received England white ball call-ups already.

"I'm excited because I actually don't know much about the coaching staff," Lehmann told BBC Radio Solent. "I actually played against Jimmy, and he's been over here to Australia in the T20 stuff.

"Jimmy is a great coach so I'm excited to work with him in terms of a batting perspective, and the other things I've spoken the people about is the excitingness of these young players.

"Everyone sees the growth and the potential in these kids, and I feel like I've been in a pretty lucky position in South Australia to help progress a few of their kids to win a Premiership and a Shield and one-dayers last year.

"I've probably seen the cycle of how it can happen, and putting them in between a couple of senior players that are still around in [Liam] Dawson and [Ben] Brown and the likes of them.

"Hopefully I can add to that and really put a nice mould of ages throughout the team."

Lehmann previously played in England for Yorkshire and Lancashire. His father, former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann, is currently in charge at Division Two side Northamptonshire.

When asked if he was interested in playing for his father, Lehmann Jr said: "When we talked about it, a lot of the talk was about going to a successful club, and one that has been in Division One and is strong.

"That's something that I pride myself on, and I want to contribute to that. That makes it a lot easier when your travelling to the other side of the world.

"Also, I'm not too sure that the father-son coaching-playing duo is the greatest idea. We love to bounce ideas off each other, and we love to talk about cricket and that's been a massive part of our lives, but I don't fancy him being my boss!"

Another connection to the Rose Bowl for Lehmann is uncle Craig White - the former England all-rounder and ex-Hampshire coach.

White is the brother of Jake's mother, Andrea, making him Darren Lehmann's brother-in-law, and thus Jake's uncle.

"We've spoken a few times and I think he was actually there when I played for Yorkshire against Hampshire," Lehmann said.

"Back then I think he was an assistant coach at the time. and he's got nothing but great things to say about Hampshire. Once again, the culture, the ground, the facilities, everything that it provides is a massive bonus and will be great for me."

Lehmann will arrive alongside Australia Test bowler Michael Neser who has been signed to play the opening six Championship games.

Neser, 35, has played in three of the five matches in the current Ashes series, taking 14 wickets so far.

"We played together in the T20s a while ago when he was at the Adelaide Strikers when we won the Big Bash (2016)," Lehmann said.

"We've already won something together, so it will be exciting to actually play with him again and not have to face him because he's a proper nightmare of a bowler.

"He competes so hard with the bat, the ball, in the field, catches everything. He's an absolute competitor.

"The fact that he has only played a few Tests, I feel like he could have been a 50-plus Test player easily if the timings was right and he didn't have the big three quicks in Australia also playing."