STEVE PATTERSON feels Yorkshire now have a healthy mixture of youth and experience in their squad and is confident of a successful 2019 for the county.

Seamer Patterson will captain the side again this summer having taken over from Gary Ballance midway through last season.

Ever since narrowly missing out on three straight Championship titles in 2016, the White Rose hierarchy have spoken about the challenges of a transitional period ahead.

This winter, fast bowlers Jack Brooks (Somerset) and Liam Plunkett (Surrey), 34 and 33 years old respectively, have left, and in has come former South Africa international Duanne Olivier, 26, on a three-year Kolpak contract.

Mat Pillans and Josh Poysden also arrived late last summer.

In the batting department, they have opted against starting the season with an overseas player, an area which has not brought consistent success in recent times, and have signed homegrown 22-year-old Will Fraine from Nottinghamshire.

They are hoping for heavy runs from the likes of Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance alongside Lions batsman Tom Kohler-Cadmore, while 20-year-old Harry Brook has all the ability in the world and is set to play all formats again.

In the bowling department, Patterson, Ben Coad and Olivier will carry the majority of the wicket-taking load.

Yorkshire have finished fourth in the Specsavers Division One for the last two seasons and, despite regularly reaching semi-finals, are without a limited-overs trophy since 2002.

Patterson said: “I think we’ve got a nice balance now.

“Looking back a year or so ago, myself, Tim Bresnan, Brooksy and Liam Plunkett were all at a similar age, and you have to be careful that you don’t all finish at the same time.

“Now, Coady’s played a few years and is quite established, and we have Duanne at 26 and Mat Pillans.

“Then we have the young lads like Josh Shaw, Matt Fisher and Jared Warner, who are really exciting.

“Going forwards, the bowling side is in really good shape.

“If the lads can continue to show the batting form they showed in the last six weeks of last season, we can beat a lot of teams.”

Yorkshire will fly home from their pre-season training camp in Potchefstroom on Wednesday ahead of a three-day University friendly against Leeds/Bradford, starting on March 31. Their first Championship match is away against Notts at Trent Bridge from April 5.

“For me, a successful summer is seeing the young lads develop and gain more experience,” said Patterson.

“Brooky, does he learn a lot more about first-team cricket? The same goes for Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Will Fraine, Matthew Fisher, Josh Shaw, these sort of players.

“If we see a lot of that, I see that as success.

“But, fundamentally, you’re there to win games of cricket. So I would like to see us compete in all formats.

“Last year, we got to the semi-finals of the Royal London. I see no reason why we can’t do that again and go one step further.

“Twenty20 was disappointing, but we have more variation in our bowling attack now.

“And Championship cricket, we know we’re better than what we’ve shown over the last two years.

“It’s about showing a bit of consistency. Last year, we won a game heavily and then lost one heavily. There was very little in between.

“I just want to see more consistency. If we do that, we’ll be better off than last year.”