Andrew Gale: Headingley Roses clash set to be a cracker

YORKSHIRE'S Twenty20 Blast campaign started against Leicestershire Foxes last night and it will feel quite weird that for the first time in seven or eight years, I won't have been involved in the first T20 game.
Tim Bresnan.Tim Bresnan.
Tim Bresnan.

But that is the way that the club have gone and I have to take that on the chin. I still want to play a part. But I have got to make sure that my County Championship form picks up a little bit, so I can put some pressure on those who are currently playing.

After Friday, it is onto tomorrow’s four-dayer and our Roses game at Headingley promises to be a cracker. Lancashire are in a great form – it will be a good test for both teams.

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The Roses are the games you want to be involved in and I think Lancashire are playing some really good cricket at the minute. We at Yorkshire need to be playing some better cricket and it will be a good test to see where we are at.

They have gone down the route of playing a few more homegrown lads, similar to us. From the outside, it seems like they have a really good team spirit and their overseas (Neil Wagner) has done well and Alviro Pietersen is a good batsman.

But if we play the cricket we know we can, we can go toe to toe with them.

I think a lot of clubs now are starting to bring more of their own players through now and Lancashire have been trying to do that for a few years and it is just getting that balance right between homegrown talent and experience. They are probably just starting to get that balance right.

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Speaking of balance, It will be good to have Bresy back tomorrow. He gives us good balance in the team and he was crucial with bat and ball last year. Hopefully he will get through Friday and he will be raring to go tomorrow.

As for Ryan Sidebottom, he’s still a fair way off yet. I’d expect six weeks at least and he’s still wearing a boot at the minute. So he’s still a long way off.

We have had a relatively free week this week, but things have still been quite full on.

We have tried to fit in training ahead of some games being washed out, which hasn’t been ideal for the lads.

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It was a shame that the All Rounder Cricket T20 Challenge between the Bradford League XI and Yorkshire on Thursday night at Pudsey Congs was called off because of the weather.

It was a shame for Pudsey really as I know how much effort these clubs put in and obviously it’s a big-money earner. It’s disappointing, but can’t be helped.

Every year, these games seem to get washed out.

Onto England and it was a comprehensive win over Sri Lanka at Headingley inside three days.

I am not sure how it affected the club financially as I know a lot of people had tickets for Sunday and were disappointed that the game was finished.

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But the win was brilliant for England and the conditions were tailor-made for the English bowlers. After putting on a decent total in the first innings, I thought James Anderson and Stuart Broad were outstanding and got the ball to really swing around. It is very early in the season for the Sri Lanka batsmen and it was tough for them.

I know, with the amount of time lost to weather, that some want the northern Tests to be later on in the summer.

But looking at it, England want to win as many Test matches as they can and they probably think that the best chance of doing that is to play up north at this time of year.

Obviously Ben Stokes is now going to be out for a spell and is missing the Durham Test at his home ground.

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Looking at it, maybe it is probably not a bad thing in the scheme of things in that England get to look at the full spectrum of players.

Stokes is obviously a shoo-in, but (Chris) Woakes is desperate to prove himself at Test level and this gives England a chance to look at Woakesy over a period of time and really build a squad of players.