IT IS quite ironic that Martyn Moxon sat down to discuss Yorkshire's recruitment for 2018 on transfer deadline day in the football world.

"It's been busy, but certainly not as hectic as that is," he laughed.

Two overseas signings have been confirmed ahead of the forthcoming summer; New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and India's Cheteshwar Pujara. And a third has by no means ruled out.

That would come in the NatWest T20 Blast to play alongside Williamson, although Moxon admitted any signing would be a bonus.

The county's director of cricket explained: "There's a salary cap, and we're an expensive squad without overseas players, so we're just going to have to look at that situation. That's the main consideration. We don't want to breach that.

"It may well be that we don't go for a second overseas player for T20. If we don't, we'll go with the lads we've got.

"We'll wait and see how much Pujara misses because that will affect the salary cap because we're paying him on a pro rata basis. If he misses more than we expect, there may be more money available.

"We're pretty relaxed about having a second overseas. We're comfortable of our capabilities without one.

"We do have an idea of what we might go for if we have the resources."

Things haven't been particularly straightforward for Moxon and company in recent years when it comes to overseas signings, with a number of players having to leave early or arrive late due to international or other domestic commitments.

But, fingers crossed and touch wood, things are looking good at the moment, with Williamson and Pujara looking set to cover the lion's share of the season between them.

"The key words there are 'at the moment'. We all know that things can change very quickly," continued Moxon.

"Even with Pujara, we weren't able to announce his signing until after the IPL auction because all Indian contracted players must go in that. It's part of their deal.

"We've had the deal done for several weeks, but we had to go along with that.

"In the time we agreed the deal and announced it, there's been a Test Match for India against Afghanistan organised, so the goalposts have slightly changed.

"Everything is crossed that nothing else crops up for India and New Zealand between now and when they arrive."

So, to recap the club's recent announcements, Pujara’s first match is likely to be the season-opener against Leeds-Bradford MCCU at Emerald Headingley, starting April 7.

He will play the first five Championship games before returning home for a one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bangalore between June 14-18.

He will return in time for the away trip to Hampshire, in the Specsavers County Championship, on June 20 before playing against Surrey the following week. He would also be available for any potential 50-over Lord's final.

Pujara could then return at the end of the season to play the final two Championship matches following India's Test series in England.

Williamson, meanwhile, plays 11 NatWest T20 Blast matches from July 13 and four Championship matches, ending on September 4-7 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

"With four-day cricket in mind, we wanted to get a real quality batsman in to try and help us out because, over the last three years or so, we haven't performed as well as we would like," said Moxon.

"Given our brush with relegation last year and the way we batted, we really want to get back on track in that form of the game.

"Getting Pujara and Kane is really important for us because they're quality players, people capable of scoring big hundreds. That was a main priority going into the season."

But limited overs cricket is massively important too, and Pujara is set to end his two-and-a-half-year exile from 50-over cricket.

He played the last of his five one-day internationals in June 2014, but surprisingly has not played a List A match of any sort since December 2015.

He averages 54.12 from 82 matches in that format.

Moxon added: "Pujara's record in 50-over cricket is very good. He averages over 50.

"For us, we see him as the glue that can hold us together.

"We have plenty of batsmen who are attack minded, so we are happy to have that solid player in the midst of those.

"Similarly with Kane, we saw the value of Shaun Marsh in Twenty20 cricket last year. He enabled our stroke players to go in and play with freedom. Kane is someone who is superb at playing the situation."