Yorkshire demise in YB40 will not alter their focus

June may still be in its infancy, but Yorkshire already find one door to silverware slammed firmly shut in their faces, with Gale’s troops already out of contention for the semi-finals of the Yorkshire Bank 40 competition.

The Vikings’ five-wicket defeat to Gloucestershire at Headingley Carnegie on Saturday did not just inflict a fourth loss in five matches in the 40-over format, but also a fatal blow to their hopes of reaching the knockout stages.

Ahead of the game, first-team coach Jason Gillespie had acknowledged that only victory in their final eight Group C fixtures would see them progress and now that unlikely scenario has been put to bed Yorkshire will adopt a sensible approach to selection in the forthcoming YB40 games.

The workload of the likes of Ryan Sidebottom and Liam Plunkett has already been managed amid a busy schedule in one-day and first-class formats and that pattern will continue in the coming weeks with senior men rested.

Yorkshire’s one remaining hope of glory in the limited-overs 
format comes in the Friends Life T20, with their campaign starting on June 28.

And while success in the 20-over format is something that everyone at Headingley will strive for, the overwhelming priority remains the County Championship – and expect Yorkshire to adopt a pragmatic approach to selection if their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages flounder in T20.

Gale said: “At the start of the season, we set out to win the County Championship and to do that we have to rest the likes of Sidebottom and (Steve) Patterson.

“That means giving opportunities to others, although it also means we won’t be at full strength.

“Obviously, you want to win all three competitions. But I always think the teams who try and put their best teams out in every competition have a lot of injuries and end up winning nothing.

“At the start of the season, a lot was made of going for the Championship in our 150th season and if that means resting a few players and keeping them fresh, then unfortunately, it’s the YB40 that’s going to suffer.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle to qualify now. We just haven’t played well enough.

“I reckon we have probably been at 70 or 80 per cent in terms of our best and we have made bad decisions.

“We haven’t executed the clear game plans we talked about and have shown a bit of inexperience.

“The disappointing thing has been that we are not having one batsman who is staying in until the last five overs to give us a launching pad to getting 260 to 270 and we have seemed to be 20 runs or so short this season.”

The main redeeming feature of the YB40 campaign so far has been the blooding of teenagers Will Rhodes and Ben Coad, who have both shown promise, with several more rookie talents expected to be given the nod in the remaining group matches.

Gale said: “For the young guys, it’s a fantastic learning curve. It is giving experience to lads such as Ben and Will, who have only really just started playing academy and second-team cricket.

“For them to get some exposure like they did on Sunday in front of four or five thousand at Headingley, they are only going to come on and get more confidence as cricketers.”

Yorkshire, flying high towards the top of Division One, decamp to Scarborough this week, with Gale’s side tackling Nottinghamshire, whose pace attack includes Ajmal Shahzad, who left the county under a cloud last year.

Top-order man Joe Sayers has paid the price for his run famine this term and is replaced by Alex Lees in the Tykes’ squad, having struck just 53 first-class runs in six innings at 10.60 this term.

Coad is replaced by Iain Wardlaw in the 12-man squad.

Coach Gillespie said: “Alex’s performances in the second team have demanded his selection and he deserves his chance.

“Joe hasn’t grasped his opportunity since returning to the first team and with strong competition for places across all areas of the team, Alex’s consistent efforts with the bat warrant his selection.”

Gale has revealed that the county are hoping that seamer Jack Brooks will be back in the fray for the home game with Surrey on June 21 at Headingley, with the former Northamptonshire man to step up his comeback following a thumb injury this week.

Gale said: “Brooksy has had his pot off and will be back bowling this week. But he’s probably a couple of weeks away because he needs to build the flexibility back up in his thumb. We are targeting him to be back in the Surrey game at home.

“Plunkett is probably another week away with his injured thigh and the Scarborough game comes a week too early for him.

“Raf (Azeem Rafiq) is also close and probably about a week away from playing in the second team.

“So we are getting there and in two or three weeks’ time, we should have a fullish squad as long as no one else goes down injured.”

Yorkshire’s squad to face Notts: Ashraf, Balance, Gale (c), Hodd (wk), Jaques, Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Pyrah, Rashid, Sidebottom, Wardlaw.

White Rose woes in Group C games

Yorkshire have lost four of their five Yorkshire Bank 40 games this season:

June 2: Yorkshire (240-6) lost to Gloucestershire (243-5) by 5 wkts.

May 27: Yorkshire (236-8) lost to Middlesex (237-4) by 6 wkts.

May 19: Yorkshire (191-5) beat Unicorns (189-9) by 5 wkts.

May 11: Yorkshire (207) lost to Somerset (338-5) by 131 runs.

May 5: Yorkshire (257) lost to Glamorgan (285-7) by 28 runs.