ADAM Wheater has been confirmed as Hampshire Royals’ wicketkeeper-batsman for tomorrow night’s Friends Life t20 opener against Surrey.

Wheater, who arrived from Essex in March, has now replaced Michael Bates in all formats as the t20 champions prepare to host a Surrey side including Ricky Ponting and former Hampshire duo Glenn Maxwell and Chris Tremlett.

Hampshire t20 captain Dimi Mascarenhas admits it was a difficult decision to leave out Bates, whose glovework was a key factor in the Royals winning the limited-overs double last season.

He said: “Unfortunately Bates will be missing out. It was a tough call because he’s done really well over the last few years with the gloves. But these are the calls you have to make sometimes.

“Wheats is obviously a better batsman but Bates is a better wicketkeeper, it’s just one of those where you’ve got to make a call. Wheats is going to have to perform with bat and gloves and we’ll see where we go.”

Danny Briggs is unavailable following his England call-up for the two Twenty20 internationals against New Zealand at The Oval that sandwich Surrey’s visit, the first of which is played tonight.

But the inclusion of Wheater - who hit a match-winning 70 in last week’s YB40 win against Derbyshire - means Hampshire have a formidably strong batting line-up, with Mascarenhas, Sohail Tanvir and Chris Wood down at numbers eight, nine and ten.

“We do bat deep but there’s no room for complacency, the top order know it’s their job to get runs on the board for us to defend - and do it consistently” added Mascarenhas. “That’s how you win games.”

Mascarenhas admits that Hampshire could also use Wheater as a specialist batsman if they decided to recall Bates.

“Wheats is an out-and-out batter without the gloves so it does put pressure on the others,” he said. “We’ll have to see how the first couple of games go.”

Hampshire (from): Carberry, Vince, Adams, McKenzie, Ervine, Dawson, Wheater, Mascarenhas, Tanvir, Wood, Griffiths, Riazuddin.