Yorkshire CCC hunt Shan Masood replacement with shortcomings elsewhere threatening David Wiese's Twenty20 return

Yorkshire's 20-over campaign met a soggy end when Friday's Roses match was abandoned without a ball bowled.

It took Sunday's final round of group games – which the White Rose was not involved in – to categorically confirm their 20-over campaign was over for the year but washouts at Durham and Old Trafford denied Yorkshire the chance to finish in the north’s top four.

Missing the quarter-finals means they will not see their captain Masood until August at the earliest, with the Pakistan batsman heading to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series. Wicketkeeper Jonny Tattersall will lead the side in County Championship matches against Worcestershire, Sussex and Durham, but the club are looking for someone to fill the void at the top of the order.

"There's discussions but I don't think anything has been confirmed yet so it would be wrong for me to give you a name," said Gibson. “We're looking at somebody to add some quality our already talented line-up, which is very young.

"Against Gloucestershire we had three guys under 23 scoring hundreds (Finlay Bean, George Hill and Matthew Revis) and it says to me our development pipeline is working so we want to add a little bit of quality to that with an overseas player."

Yorkshire have already used five overseas players in 2023, with West Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope and Pakistani batter Saud Shakeel filling in when Masood was on limited-overs duty against New Zealand, and Australian seamer Mark Steketee debuting against Gloucestershire. Namibia all-rounder Wiese was used as a Twenty20 specialist.

Runs were not a problem in the last four-day game despite Masood making only 32 of them, but Gibson is looking for more than that.

"We've got a pretty young team in terms not just of age but also experience,” he argued. "If you take Shan out of it you've got Adam Lyth as the elder statesman but most of the other guys are quite young so if we can bring in an overseas player player to add a little bit of quality, I still think that's the best way to go.

"I'm people-first. Shan Masood is a fantastic player but when he's sitting around with the young players he passes on knowledge and information, as David Wiese did."

Wiese was fourth in Yorkshire's Twenty20 batting averages – Dawid Malan was way out in front with 546 runs at 54.6 – third in the bowling (where Jordan Thompson hit the 20-wicket mark), and third for outfielder catches, so given his contribution extended beyond that, it might seem a given the 38-year-old South African and Namibia international and Indian Premier League veteran will return for 2024.

Gibson says it is slightly more complicated due to his concerns about this season’s “death” bowling.

"With Shan being an overseas captain and most likely a permanent fixture we only have one other (overseas slot) so what I have to look at now is does Wiese give me everything I need,” he said. “Do I have a finisher at the end or do I need to see if we can go out and get one?

"But I like Wiese. You see him on the field, hitting sixes, talking brilliant catches on the boundary and so on but what I see in the dressing room is a leader happy to pass on knowledge and information to my young players. That's what I want from an overseas player, not just what he does on the field.

"I've worked with David before in franchise cricket and he works hard at his game even though he's in his mid- to late-30s. He works hard in the gym too.

"You see him in the dressing room talking to a Dom Leech or somebody and it can only be a good thing for Dom Leech to have a conversation around cricket, around bowling, around certain situations from someone like David Wiese.

"I know he's enjoyed it but we haven't had a conversation around whether he wants to come back or not. I'm sure we will."

Whoever is next on Yorkshire's overseas merry-go-round, it will require a lot of homework but the much-travelled Gibson says it comes as second nature.

"Coaches are talking all the time," he said. "We're calling each other up saying, 'I saw you working with this guy at this tournament, what do you think of him?'

"We lean on each other all the time and that's a great facility to have when you're trying to decide what you want for and from your overseas player.

"It can only give you the best chance of making the right decision because it's important you do."

Yorkshire have a clear week to focus on red-ball cricket ahead of the game at Worcester, which starts on Monday July 10.