Yorkshire's Andrew Gale set for league cricket duty (From York Press)

Yorkshire's Andrew Gale set for league cricket duty

10:41am Friday 20th July 2012 in Sport By Graham Hardcastle

Yorkshire plan to make captain Andrew Gale available for league cricket duty tomorrow as he steps up his comeback from a hip injury.

First-team coach Jason Gillespie revealed that playing for Cleckheaton in the Bradford League is an important part of the left-handed batsman’s bid to play in Wednesday’s Friends Life t20 quarter-final against Worcestershire at Headingley.

Gale has been out of action since June 18 with the injury, leaving Azeem Rafiq and Phil Jaques to share the captaincy duties in Twenty20 and the County Championship and Adam Lyth to replace him at the top of the order in t20.

Should the 28-year-old progress through the latter stages of his recovery, which also includes an appearance in Sunday’s Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, he will play against Worcester and make only his fourth t20 appearance of the summer.

News of Gale’s recovery leaves Gillespie with the selection headache of which batsman to leave out at the top of the order.

It is likely to be Lyth, despite him being exceptional in the field and having scored 78 off 51 balls in the final North Division clash with Derbyshire earlier this month – an innings which contributed to a Yorkshire record partnership of 131 for the first wicket with Phil Jaques.

“Galey’s coming along really well,” said Gillespie yesterday after the second day of Yorkshire’s County Championship match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield was called off at 11am due to an incredibly wet outfield.

“He’s the captain of the club and one of our best players. If he’s fit, he will play (against Worcestershire). It will be a tough decision to make, but we’ll make the best one we can to try to put our strongest side out there.

“Galey’s an important member of our Twenty20 side. He batted really well before he got injured. He missed out in the first game against Durham, but did really well after that.

“We’re quietly confident that he’ll be available. He’s batted this morning (Thursday), and by all accounts he’s pulled up quite well.

“The ideal plan is that he’ll play league cricket tomorrow with a view to coming here and playing on Sunday. That might change, but that’s the plan we are working towards.”

Gillespie also confirmed that overseas batsman David Miller is due to land in England on Sunday or Monday despite the South African tweeting earlier this week that he was encountering problems getting a visa.