Marcus Trescothick admits matching last season's outstanding form will be a huge challenge with the added burden of the Somerset CCC captaincy.

The former England star cracked 2,951 runs in all competitions in 2009 before taking over as skipper from Justin Langer.

Trescothick is preparing for the new season at Taunton, training with a handful of team-mates.

His early exit from October's Champions League with a recurrence of his stress-related condition is merely a memory and the first Championship game, away to Yorkshire, is just 12 weeks away.

"Maintaining my form will be a huge challenge, especially with the burden of being captain," Trescothick said. "Everyone talks about that, and trying to perform at the same time is tough – there is no doubt about that.

"I have seen it with other people where it takes its toll. We are very aware of that and we have to manage as much as we can because my runs are still very important to the club."

Trescothick confirmed that Arul Suppiah, who scored 1,201 runs opening the batting with him last year, will continue at the top of the order despite the signing of specialist opener Nick Compton from Middlesex.

"Me and Arul are going to continue to open in four-day cricket," he said. "We are starting to bond as a partnership. Last year was good and we worked together well. We will have a like-for-like replacement for Justin at No 3 in Nick. That will be the plan."

Trescothick added that he favoured the idea of opening with wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter in one-day cricket. Last year Langer regularly pulled rank and went in first.

"He (Kieswetter) did so well opening the batting, I would be looking to keep him up there as much as possible," said Trescothick.

"Going forward for his career, I think it would help him, but he is so destructive that if you bat him at five or six he can come in and play the innings like he did at Gloucester (84 from 42 balls to transform a losing cause).

"I don't think there are many people in the country who could do that. But having watched a few games over the winter, especially when South Africa played England and Graeme Smith smashed 80 and Loots Bosman smashed 80, that may be an avenue we have to open up.

"If we can get the destructiveness in the top two or three and still pack a bit in the middle order then we could be quite destructive."

Somerset have also signed big-hitters Cameron White and Kieron Pollard for the Twenty20 Cup.

Trescothick is discussing who his vice-captain will be with director of cricket Brian Rose and head coach Andy Hurry.

He added: "There are a number of guys under consideration – Hildy (James Hildreth), (Peter) Trego, Kieswetter, (Alfonso) Thomas, Zander (de Bruyn)." All-rounder de Bruyn is the only one of the quintet with any senior captaincy experience, having led sides in his native South Africa.

Overseas players Murali Kartik and White have also led their state sides, while White captained Somerset when Ian Blackwell was injured in 2006.

Somerset do not have a specialist bowling coach and, despite the retirement of Andrew Caddick, Trescothick has no firm plans to appoint one. He said: "It is a tough one. We all want specialist coaches. You should always have someone around. Alfonso is great to talk to about bowling. (Former England seamer) Richard Johnson is always buzzing around (the club) and so it is not like we don't have anyone at all.

"In an ideal world, and if you had an unlimited budget, you would have Troy Cooley (former England bowling coach now with Australia) or someone."