Cricket video: 2012 will be better for Yorkshire - Shahzad

The pace-bowling all-rounder kept going through the pain of an ankle injury, which eventually required surgery, for 10 county championship matches - to depressingly little effect.

As Yorkshire faltered to relegation from LV= Division One, and fell well short of the knockout phases after twin sixth places in each of the limited-overs competitions, Shahzad dropped ever further out of the reckoning to add to his one Test and 11 one-day international caps for England.

A paltry 25 wickets at an alarming 41 runs each resulted in the knowledge too that he, and several others, were the intended targets of public displeasure voiced at the end of a sorry campaign by Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves.

Throw in an ignominious rebuke and fine for his scuffing of the pitch while batting at Edgbaston - an uncharacteristic and “stupid act”, he concedes himself - not to mention that October date with the surgeon’s knife after all, and it is hard to imagine how 2011 could have gone much worse.

But Shahzad is an optimist - and as a new season dawns, under revamped Yorkshire management with Jason Gillespie first-team coach and Martyn Moxon director of cricket - he sees good reason to be hoping for the best again.

“There were some harsh words spoken,” he said, of the blunt language in Graves’ end of term report.

“But the stats are there for everybody to see. A few players didn’t have the best of seasons.”

Shahzad insists nonetheless that his painful left ankle was significant mitigation for his struggles.

“I’ve got my reasons for why it was so tough personally.

“Everyone knew that was the case with my ankle. If they didn’t think I was fit to play then I shouldn’t be on the pitch. But obviously people thought I was, and I kept playing.”

If he could relive last summer, Shahzad would neither press on through the pain nor - as he also did - try to manage the discomfort by altering his bowling methods.

Back in the present, he does not refute that criticism from on high; on the other hand, he is not one to waste energy dwelling on a telling of either.

“There were a few people, including myself, who did get a nudge and a little bit of a shock at the end of last season by a few words that were spoken by the owner of the club,” he said.

“You’re not going to really take that on board; we’ve just got to crack on with what we do.

“We try our best every time we get on the pitch. There’s not a point when we get on the pitch and think ‘Oh, today’s not the day for us’.

“This is my job. I’m a fast bowler, who bats - and I go on to that pitch every day trying to take wickets and bowl as quick as I possibly can, and bowl well.

“People have their opinions and views, which I don’t really take to heart.

“I’m at the end of a three year contract with Yorkshire. My personal ambition is to do well this season, and hope to get another contract offer - and put some hard graft in.

“I think we’re all looking forward to a very strong season.”

So speak all cricketers, of course, at the start of every summer.

But Shahzad is confident much has changed, for the better, in the past 12 months - not least a successful operation on his ankle.

“When I started the season with Yorkshire, I felt fine and strong.

“My body was in good nick. But as the games went on, this troublesome ankle just kept coming about.

“I had it injected again - which, to be honest, didn’t do it any good.

“Then I played a bit more than half the season with a dodgy ankle.

“I was in a lot of pain, but just kept playing through it - because I wanted to do the best I possibly could.

“In hindsight, I could have probably taken that time and got it checked out.”

This summer, he is sure, will be very different.

“It was a tough season last year, mainly because of the ankle ... but it feels very good now. There’s no pain.”

Shahzad began 2011 as an England tourist, in Australia and then the World Cup.

He was recently invited back to bowl at England’s limited-overs specialists in the nets in the United Arab Emirates as they prepared for their victories there against Pakistan. But at 26, he knows there is much ground to be regained.

“I feel as if I’m starting at the beginning again.

“England, and people around the world, know what I’m capable of doing.

“I need to go and play for Yorkshire now, put in some good performances.

“Then I’ll just be like any other player on the county circuit. If the opportunity comes then I’m there to get picked.

“I don’t see myself at any other level than anybody else. If the opportunity arises and England need me, they know what I can do and where I am.”