Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth has sights set on a record breaking start to T20 campaign

Lyth goes into the match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield needing 21 more runs to become the club’s highest T20 scorer.

Lyth has 2,240 runs from 101 appearances for the county – 20 behind current first-team coach Andrew Gale, who struck 2,260 from 104 games.

Lyth was denied the chance to beat Gale when Yorkshire’s opening match in this year’s competition against Notts at Headingley was washed out on Friday night.

“It would be a proud moment to get there,” said Lyth, who made his first T20 appearance in 2008.

“I didn’t know that was the case (that the record was approaching), but it would be nice to be leading the way for the club with runs in T20.

“It’s not just about the next 21 runs, though; I want to score a lot more not just this year, but also in the years to come.

“I won’t be really thinking about the record, I’ll be thinking about getting the boys off to a quick start.”

Lyth, 31, forms part of a powerful top-three batting line-up with Tom Kohler-Cadmore and David Willey.

Kohler-Cadmore is captaining the T20 side in the absence of Steve Patterson, who is resting for the first five group games after a hectic period of County Championship action, while Willey’s white-ball credentials speak for themselves, the all-rounder having represented England on 74 occasions in the white-ball arena.

“Hopefully, myself, Tom and Dave can do as well as we have done for the last few years,” said Lyth.

“As a club, we’ve not done as well as we would like in T20 (Yorkshire have never won the T20 Blast), but this time around our chances are high.

“At the same time, it’s alright saying that.

“We have to go out there and do it, of course.”

Lyth holds the record for Yorkshire’s highest individual T20 score (161 against Northamptonshire at Headingley in 2017) and also for the most T20 runs for the club in a season (535 in the same year). The Whitby-born left-hander is one of the most versatile players on the county circuit, a useful off-spin bowler and a gun fielder too.

“I’m really pleased the way T20 and 50-overs cricket has gone for me over the years,” he reflected.

“The 50-over game was actually quite lean for me this year, and I was disappointed with that, but hopefully I can get off to a good start in this year’s T20 competition.

“It’s a really exciting time of the year.

“All the technical stuff goes out of the window to a degree, and you just concentrate on seeing the ball and hitting the ball, which really works for me.”

Steady rain prevented play from getting under way at Headingley on Friday night, with umpires Ian Blackwell and Peter Hartley calling things off at 7.45pm.

Spectators who braved the elements were denied the opportunity to see Nicholas Pooran make his Yorkshire debut, the West Indies’ batsman having been signed for the first five group games in a clear statement of Yorkshire’s intent to challenge for the trophy.

Yorkshire were hoping to take advantage of a Notts side who are struggling at the foot of the Championship and who lost their first T20 match to defending champions Worcestershire at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Harry Brook, the young Yorkshire batsman, spoke for everyone when he said of the abandonment: “It’s extremely frustrating. All the lads are looking forward to playing in this competition so much.

“We had a really good win last week against Somerset (in the County Championship), and to beat them in such a strong fashion was really good and gives us a lot of confidence going into the T20 competition.

“Anything can happen in T20 – you can win convincingly one night and the next day lose convincingly, but hopefully we can get ourselves to Finals Day and go and win the trophy.”