Gale set to gauge spin duo ahead of county campaign

The Yorkshire captain has hailed leg-spinner Adil Rashid, left-arm spinner David Wainwright and off-spinner Azeem Rafiq as the finest up-and-coming slow men on the county circuit.

Gale, who today flies to the Middle East to lead England Lions on their tour of the United Arab Emirates, said: "I think we're very lucky at Yorkshire because we've got the best three young spin bowlers in England in my view. Adil and David will be continuing their development on the Lions tour, while Azeem has come on leaps and bounds and served as captain of England Under-19s.

"They're all match-winners and the challenge we've got at Yorkshire is to try to accommodate them as much as possible.

"It's very exciting that we've got players of their quality and, if we can get the pitches at Headingley to turn next season, those lads could be a real force."

Gale believes there is a place in the same Yorkshire team for Rashid and Wainwright, the club's first-choice spinners.

"It will be a difficult decision early season to see if we can play them both or whether we can only play one, but I certainly think we could play both," he said. "We all know what Adil is capable of, while David turned in some brilliant performances last summer.

"It will be good to have them both on the Lions tour because it will give me a little taste of what's the best way to manage them and captain them on the field.

"But I can definitely see a role for them in the same team. You only have to think back a few years to when we had Adil and Mark Lawson playing together in the same side, so there's no reason why you can't go in with two spinners."

Gale also backed Rashid to shrug off the disappointments of 2009, when he drifted into the full England squad only to drift straight out again.

"I would imagine Adil's probably a little bit low on confidence right now and he hasn't really played a lot of cricket lately, despite the fact he's been around the England set-up all winter," added Gale.

"It will be good for him to get back to bowling in the middle again because he's the sort of bowler who's at his best when he's playing regularly."