Players are aware they have not hit their target this season, says Yorkshire captain Gale

The world’s No 1 Test team were not so long ago a laughing stock, but Strauss and team manager Andy Flower identified the weaknesses and acted swiftly and positively to eradicate them.

In an attempt to rid Yorkshire of the same troubles that sees them staring down the barrel of relegation from LV= County Championship Division One, the White Rose’s captain has taken a leaf out of Strauss’s book.

Where Strauss accepted England’s shortcomings, Yorkshire’s stricken captain has laid bare the problems that have led to the county going from title challengers to relegation candidates in 12 months.

“Our batters haven’t been ruthless enough in Championship cricket,” said Gale, whose side today complete their one-day campaign against Worcestershire in the CB40 at Headingley Carnegie (1.45pm).

“We’ve made 60-, 70-, 80-odd but as we’ve seen with (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul against us last week, 190 is a match-winning knock, it’s what takes the game away from the opposition.

“And also the bowlers haven’t got enough five-fors, we’ve struggled to clean the tail up of most teams. When we’ve been in a winning position we’ve not been ruthless enough to clean them up.

“We have addressed it in the changing room, but addressing it and putting it into practice out on the field is two different things.

“We’ve had injuries as well, we missed Ajmal (Shahzad) the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve addressed why we haven’t bowled the tail out, why we haven’t scored enough hundreds, but putting it into practice is a different thing. We keep making the same mistakes.”

Gale has been equally forthright in the dressing room. “There’s not many different players from last season and we had a lot of success last year,” he continues.

“It is the second season for a lot of them and that can always be difficult. The likes of Adam Lyth, Oliver Hannon-Dalby have found it difficult but I’ve been pretty frank and honest about where the players need to improve and it’s up to them to put it right.

“We’ve not placed too much on one man returning to the team; Jacques Rudolph’s runs have helped but some of the other lads have got to contribute more.

“Gary Ballance and Joe Root have contributed over the last few weeks, but probably some of the more experienced players haven’t performed as well as we would have liked, the likes of Anthony McGrath and Joe Sayers, haven’t been as consistent as we would have liked.

“They know it - the stats speak for themselves.”

But Gale is not all about the rage, the frustration. The 27-year-old who is growing with every experience knows the respect he has earned from his team-mates should not be taken for granted.

He wants improvement, they want improvement, but after a season that may well end in relegation, some hard questions need to be asked.

First up is addressing the lack of strength in the squad.

Yorkshire went without an overseas player this year and although Rudolph answered their mid-season SOS, it may prove too late.

Hence the need to look quickly at adding players over the winter, particularly a strike bowler. “There’s not a great deal out there on the market,” says Gale. “Signing bowlers is hard because if there’s a fast bowler that comes on the market then everyone wants a piece of him, but we’re definitely searching.

“The finances have obviously been tough, they haven’t affected us on the pitch that much.

“We went without overseas players in the Twenty20 and we were without Jacques as well.”

If Yorkshire fail to pick up the required points from this week’s game against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, and at Headingley against Somerset next week, then relegation will hit the club hard.

Not necessarily financially, but it will be a blow to the pride of everyone from Gale to the man who mows the outfield.

Gale believes he remains the man to lead a team he still has faith in to deliver on the promise they showed in 2010. “We have got the players,” he insists. “It’s about getting the best out of these players and making sure we’re not making the mistakes we have been making.

“I probably think we’re a couple of players light, Jacques has been a good addition late in the season and I’m sure we missed his runs earlier in the season. We’d probably have won more games if he’d have been about.

“If you compare our stats to teams at the top of the league then we’re not far off, but it’s been a season where individuals have gone well and we haven’t pulled it in collectively and that’s cost us, losing vital sessions in matches and maybe that’s a little bit of inexperience where we haven’t identified those crucial half-hours here and there. If you lose those crucial half-hours in Championship cricket you get punished.

“And obviously another maybe senior bowler at times, we’ve really lacked that. But I still have faith.”

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Listen to the full Andrew Gale interview in CricketTalk at www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/audio-video