Lions trip gives Gale chance to roar his Test claim

Gale, 27, can move a step nearer the Test team by performing well on the two-month tour of the Caribbean.

With Paul Collingwood having announced his retirement from Test cricket, a vacancy exists in the England top-order.

Gale is one of several players hoping to fill the Durham man's shoes and carve out a successful international career.

He heads a four-strong Yorkshire contingent in the 17-man squad, with the club boasting more representatives than any other county.

Also aiming to impress are leg-spinning all-rounder Adil Rashid, batsman/wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and opening batsman Adam Lyth, the latter also having realistic designs on a top-order place.

The Lions, who start their tour with a two-day fixture against a St Kitts/Nevis XI at Conaree, will participate in the West Indies Cricket Board's regional four-day tournament.

They play fixtures against each of the other competing teams – Barbados, Combined Campuses and Colleges, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Windward Islands.

As well as giving Gale and his colleagues a chance to impress, the tour will serve as useful preparation for the English season, when Yorkshire will be looking to build on their third-place finish in last year's County Championship and semi-final appearance in the Clydesdale Bank 40.

The club, struggling financially, have yet to decide whether to undertake a pre-season tour with funds so tight at Headingley Carnegie.

In recent seasons, Yorkshire have warmed up in the Middle East in an attempt to hit the ground running, but they may have to make-do and mend in England this year.

As such, the competitive cricket gained by Gale, Rashid, Bairstow and Lyth can only be beneficial – although the downside is Yorkshire boss Martyn Moxon will be deprived of those players during the build-up to the season, which does little for squad togetherness.

For Gale, Bairstow and Lyth, the Lions tour follows on from the England Performance Programme in Australia pre-Christmas.

The trio gained invaluable experience Down Under, with Bairstow and Lyth even undertaking 12th man duties during the Ashes series.

On the surface, Lyth's hopes of making the Test side have not been helped by Alastair Cook's splendid performances during the Ashes.

The Essex batsman scored 766 runs at 127.66, cementing the opener's role alongside captain Andrew Strauss.

But Lyth could potentially bat elsewhere in the order and has already drawn favourable comparison with former England batsman David Gower.

The 23-year-old was the first man to 1,000 first-class runs in England last summer and there is no doubting his potential as a talented stroke-maker.

Bairstow, 21, is still learning his trade and has yet to make a first-class century.

However, he has the ability to become an England regular further down the line and faces a key 2011 at Championship level.

Rashid – rested from the England Performance Programme pre-Christmas – is somewhat in limbo as he attempts to resurrect his international career.

The 22-year-old has been playing for South Australia in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash – a form of cricket in which he has previously done well.

But Rashid has not played for England since a game against South Africa at Centurion in November 2009.

He has made five one-day and five Twenty20 international appearances but has yet to appear in a Test match – the form of the game to which he would be most suited.

Although it promises to be an important Lions tour for Rashid, the man with arguably the most to gain is Gale.

The left-hander is highly-regarded by the England management and he captained the Lions on their tour of the United Arab Emirates last year.

Somerset's James Hildreth has been handed the reins for this trip, but Gale is arguably only one consistent run of scores from Test contention.

It smacks of a pivotal few weeks for the Yorkshire captain – rated by former Yorkshire and England opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott as a future captain of his country.

The Lions squad has plenty of strength in depth.

In addition to the Yorkshire batsmen chosen, the likes of Hildreth, Ravi Bopara and Jimmy Adams will be striving to press their claims.

Steven Finn, the Middlesex pace bowler who performed so well during the first three Ashes Tests, will play the first half of the tour before being replaced by Warwickshire's Chris Woakes, who has also performed well in Australia.

Geoff Miller, the England National Selector, commented: "The tour of the West Indies gives those players who have been working hard throughout the first part of the winter an opportunity to test themselves in a competitive environment and to continue to put forward a case for inclusion in England squads over the summer.

"The England Performance Programme and England Lions tours are often crucial stages in a player's development and offer coaches and selectors an insight into whether players have the potential to develop into world-class cricketers and thrive on the international stage.

"This is a balanced squad combining players who have had considerable exposure to international and first-class cricket with younger players who have already shown considerable promise."

The squad will be led by Nottinghamshire's director of cricket Mick Newell.

The players are scheduled to return home on March 28.

Rashid, Bairstow and Lyth join captain to make Yorkshire best represented county in the West Indies tour