Everything to play for this time as Yorkshire CCC continues promotion push

Now they are within sight of a return to the First Division of the County Championship from which they were relegated in 2022.

Yorkshire cannot achieve promotion this week but they could, in theory, the following week, although matters appear likely to go down to the last round, with just 20 points separating the top-three of Sussex on 177, Middlesex 158 and Yorkshire 157.

Whatever happens, it promises to be an intriguing finish compared to the plodding conclusion of 12 months ago.

“ You look at last year, and by the time we got to this point we had no chance of trying to get promoted , and then the last three games can become a drag,” said Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach.

“This time around we are in a great position to try and get promotion, to try and get over the line.

“Everybody believes in the dressing room that we can, and we’ve just got to go and keep playing the way we’ve been playing.

"We’ve got a great opportunity.”

Up next is Leicestershire on Monday, one of Gibson’s former clubs as a player and opponents who could be out of the reckoning promotion-wise should Yorkshire prevail, and if Middlesex defeat Gloucestershire at Lord’s.

Leicestershire, in fourth, are 18 points behind Yorkshire, having won just one of their 11 games to go with nine draws and a defeat.

Leicestershire have drawn more matches, in fact, than any other side in either division, although the chances of this one finishing in a draw - weather-permitting - are perhaps less likely given that the hosts need to win to keep alive their faint hopes of coming in the top-two.

“I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t a lot of grass on it (the pitch),” added Gibson.

“Everybody in the Second Division talks about results pitches, and I’m sure they’ll try and do that.

“But we’re ready for that. We’ve got all bases covered in our attack.”

Yorkshire’s 13-man squad includes five seam/pace bowlers and two specialist spinners, with Matty Fisher back for the first time since injuring an ankle in the Championship match against Glamorgan in early May.

Fisher is leaving at the end of the season, and it would cap a decade and more of fine service - albeit often cruelly injury-hit - should he help Yorkshire in their quest to get over the line.

Jonny Bairstow is available again, although the club has said that Shan Masood is unavailable for this match after Pakistan’s Test series against Bangladesh.

In Masood’s absence, Yorkshire will be led once more by Jonny Tattersall, who has done a fine job as stand-in.

Bairstow hit 160 in the previous Championship match, against Middlesex at Headingley, and Gibson said: “I was always very sure that Jonny was going to score runs after the phone call (from the selectors) that he would have had a few days before (to say that he hadn’t been picked for England’s white-ball games).

“He’s available again for this game, which is great for us, and I always think with the England guys that when they come back, their value is far more than runs.

“I’ve said that about Joe Root a number of times, and I’ll say the same about Jonny.”

Gibson pointed to the effect that Bairstow’s presence against Middlesex had on George Hill, who hit a career-best 169 not out having averaged 21 in this year’s competition.

“George was struggling, and then George gets to bat a long time with Jonny Bairstow in the middle and it takes a lot of pressure off him and he can learn from Jonny, he can watch him and have conversations with him,” said Gibson.

“I know that they’ve got a good relationship, and it was great to see George go on and get a hundred.

“Hopefully, the next three games he gets more opportunities to do that again, and that’s why I say to all the England players when they come back - it’s not just your runs that you’re bringing, it’s your experience that’s invaluable.”

On the subject of experience, Adam Lyth, the opening batsman who turns 37 this month, goes into the game needing 43 more runs to reach his second successive 1,000-run season, and the fifth of his career.

Lyth is averaging 56 in this year’s tournament, with four hundreds and four fifties, and he averages more in first-class cricket at Grace Road (162) than at any other venue, albeit from a small sample size of three innings, which included a magnificent 248 not out in 2012, the year when Yorkshire last won promotion.

Yorkshire (from): Bean, Lyth, Luxton, Wharton, Bairstow, Tattersall, Hill, Bess, Thompson, Fisher, Coad, Moriarty, Cliff.