Oxfordshire captain Ian Hawtin has targeted a final appearance ahead of Sunday’s first competitive match of the season.

Hawtin’s side face Bedfordshire on Sunday with the final at Durham’s Riverside ground on July 22 in their sights.

Hawtin said: “In the Championship, the aim is to try to improve our position of third last year.

“We want to be challenging at the top of the division, which we have done recently.

“In the one-day competition, after going out in the semi-finals for the last two years, the aim is to get to a final.

“I think we are good in both forms of the game. I don’t think we are better at one than the other.

“It is about having a balanced side. That may not necessarily be our best 11 players, it is about our best team.”

Hawtin is now in his fifth year as skipper, while he has also taken over the reigns at his club Banbury.

“We have made a lot of improvements in the last five years,” he said.

“Oxfordshire as a county are far more competitive now than we were before.

“I am captain on the field at Banbury. I don’t do the ringing around in the week.

“If I had to do that as well, I wouldn’t be able to do the job.”

Alan Crossley is chairman of selectors with Hawtin and Rupert Evans as selectors.

New faces include Damien Shirazi, Daniel Rowe, Richard Gilbert and Rob Cunliffe, with Stuart Hole back after two years with Warwickshire.

IN: Damien Shirazi (batting all-rounder, Banbury); Daniel Rowe (seamer, Leicestershire); Richard Gilbert (seamer, Oxford); Rob Cunliffe (batsman, Bedminster); Stuart Hole (seamer, Oxford).

OUT: Jamie Hewitt (all-rounder, Hertfordshire).