JACK Leaning returns to LV= County Championship action today, with Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie urging him not to dwell on being left out last week.

The 21-year-old right-handed York batsman has enjoyed a memorable second full season of first-team cricket, one which will end with a second Division One winners' medal.

Yorkshire could secure back-to-back titles during today's opening day of their clash with Middlesex at Lord's, given they only need five points from their 14th match of the campaign.

And they are expected to be presented with the trophy this week if they finish the job, with confirmation from the ECB likely today.

Leaning is the county's second leading run-scorer in four-day cricket with 785 runs from 12 appearances.

But his three hundreds all came before the end of June and his last eight innings have yielded only 128 runs, with a top score of 46 in the win over Warwickshire at Edgbaston in early July.

For last week's win over Somerset at Headingley, Gillespie had Ashes duo Jonny Bairstow and Adam Lyth available – along with Australian Aaron Finch, who had just scored a second XI hundred.

Bairstow and Lyth were always going to play but he opted for Finch ahead of Leaning.

Today, Bairstow and Finch are unavailable due to international duty, having been called into the England and Australia squads for the remainder of the one-day series.

Gillespie said: "I'd be highly confident that Jack will play. He has a couple of little things he needs to work on in his game, and he's well aware of that, but he'll be fine.

"We've got every confidence in the world in Jack and we've shown that. All you need to do is look earlier in the season when I left out Aaron Finch and backed Jack.

"I left out Glenn Maxwell, who went and played second-team cricket. I left out two internationals and Jack was retained.

"As I explained it to him 'there's no other way to say this, we've got seven batsmen and six batting spots'. Someone had to miss out and, in that instance, it was Jack.

"Had we not had three internationals coming back, Jack would probably have retained his place.

"It was just the nature of the beast. All the stars aligned really. He hasn't quite nailed his last four games and three internationals came back. It's always a tough call."

Gillespie, meanwhile, is hopeful the majority of his internationals will be available for the final two matches against Hampshire and Sussex, although he is unsure about Joe Root.

Root has been rested by England from their ongoing one-day series ahead of a busy winter schedule – which includes full tours to Pakistan and South Africa, starting with the former early next month.

It would be a touch surprising if Root went into the Pakistan tour in the UAE having had no cricket since the last Ashes Test at The Oval on August 20.

Andrew Hodd will deputise for Bairstow behind the stumps, while veteran off-spinner James Middlebrook is expected to retain his place in the side with Adil Rashid unavailable.

Ryan Sidebottom needs only one wicket for 700 in his first-class career.

Yorkshire (from): Gale (captain), Ballance, Bresnan, Brooks, Fisher, Hodd (wicketkeeper), Leaning, Lees, Lyth, Middlebrook, Patterson, Rhodes, Sidebottom.