JACK Leaning is targeting an increased role with the ball for Yorkshire this summer.

The 24-year-old batsman from York has been working hard on his off-spinners in order to give the White Rose coaches more options and him a greater chance of winning selection.

Leaning’s spin bowling has always been part of his armoury, although a feature of his game that has very much been part-time to date.

In 132 senior appearances across all forms, he has bowled only 101 overs and taken 12 wickets.

But, with Bradford's Adil Rashid stepping away from Championship cricket for the time being, the more options Andrew Gale can call upon, the better.

And he has been helped by former Yorkshire and England off-spinner Jack Birkenshaw, who won the Championship twice with the county in 1959 and 1960 before moving to Leicestershire.

“I’ve put quite a lot of hard work into my batting first and foremost to get that back to where I want it to be,” explained Leaning.

“But I’ve done quite a lot bowling wise as well. Hopefully that will come out and make its way into the middle this year.

“It gives you that little bit of an edge with selection. If there’s a tight call and you can offer both disciplines, it gives that extra option.

“It’s just been about dedicating a few more hours to something I’ve always worked on without perhaps spending as much time on as I’d have wanted to.

“It’s helped having some specialist coaching.

“We’ve had Jack Birkenshaw coming in quite a bit, and I’ve been working closely with Rich Pyrah on things to do with my action.

“It’s been the same as it was when I was a young lad with my batting, working out what suits me best and how I can best go about it.

“Hopefully it will go all right this year.”

Despite this, Leaning, a firmer fixture in white-ball cricket, knows he has to be scoring runs to be considered for more regular Championship action.

But he heads into the 2018 campaign in confident mood having ended last year on an encouraging note.

In all, he scored 454 from 10 Championship appearances, including an early summer Roses century at Old Trafford and scores of 70, 85, 32 and 36 in the last five matches.

“I was quite happy with how I finished last season,” he said.

“The last four or five games, bar the last one at Essex, I scored some fairly consistent runs and felt quite good in the middle.

“I could have almost done with the season being a week or two longer so I could have finished off with a couple of big scores.

“I feel like I’ve had a good winter and can’t wait to get going.”

That good winter, he says, has been the case for the Yorkshire squad in general, with them determined to bounce back from the flirt with Championship relegation as well as targeting limited overs silverware.

“We know we were miles off the pace in terms of the standards we set in the Championship,” added Leaning.

“So everyone has been really keen to work hard in the nets and in the gym this winter, making that first step to rectifying things. Fingers crossed, it bears fruit.”