YORKSHIRE batsman Andrew Gale believes he has two main areas of improvement if he is to build on a successful 2009 county campaign.

The 25-year-old left-hander is preparing to fly out to South Africa in the next fortnight with county colleagues David Wainwright, Joe Sayers and Ajmal Shahzad as part of the ECB Performance Programme squad.

Gale was named as Yorkshire’s player of the year on the back of more than 1,500 runs in all competitions last summer, but he still feels there is plenty to work on.

“I have already sat down with Martyn Moxon and the England coaches to chat about the way forward,” he said.

“I think that I could have been a little bit more consistent in Championship cricket last season, I was disappointed not to reach 1,000 runs.

“In one-day cricket, myself and Jacques Rudolph got the team into some excellent positions at the top of the order, but there were a few times when I risked my wicket a little too much towards the end of the power play.

“Had I just been a bit more watchful, I could have gone a little harder when the power play finished.”

Gale recently married his fiancée, Kate, and has holidayed in Spain, but he begins preparations for the trip to South Africa by travelling down to Loughborough this week.

“I can’t wait to get back into it now,” he said.

“I really enjoyed a few weeks break because I just felt that I was getting a little bit stale towards the end of the season.”

Gale has previously said one of his career aims was to be involved in some sort of England squad over the winter months.

“This is the first winter since I played for England under-19s where it’s all been mapped out for me,” he said. “The trip to South Africa will be the ideal opportunity for me to show the coaches what I can do.”

Gale will get the opportunity to work with England batting legend Graham Gooch while in Pretoria, and the likes of Ian Bell, Steve Davies, Ryan Sidebottom and Liam Plunkett will be there too before linking up with the Test squad.

A realistic path of progression for the Dewsbury-born player will be selection for the England Lions tour post-Christmas, which is expected to be a series of one-day matches against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

“All I’ve got in my mind at the moment is South Africa,” he said. “I need to concentrate on that, and anything else that comes after it will be a bonus.”