ADAM LYTH will be hoping Nicholas Pooran saves a few sixes for his time with Yorkshire next summer as the pair prepare to meet in the forthcoming T10 competition in Abu Dhabi.

They are amongst a quartet of Vikings heading out to the Middle East this week, with David Willey also travelling and Adil Rashid flying in from England duty in New Zealand to play.

Rashid and Willey are due to play for Delhi Bulls, Lyth is returning to play for Maratha Arabians and West Indian Pooran - who last week re-signed to play for Yorkshire in next summer’s Vitality Blast - is playing for Northern Warriors in the 10-overs per side event.

Lyth is delighted to see Pooran re-sign with the White Rose after a three-game T20 stint during the recent summer.

The powerful left-hander will be available for the majority of next summer’s Blast.

“I’m over the moon he’s coming back,” said Lyth. “We only briefly saw what he could do for Yorkshire last season, but I’ve seen him first hand in the T10 even more so.

“He was fantastic in that competition last year.

“He’s a phenomenal cricketer, and he’s not someone who just bashes it out of the park. He’s got a good cricket brain, and he’s a good keeper as well, which boosts our strength even more in T20.”

Lyth heads out to Abu Dhabi tomorrow for the quick-fire competition between November 15-24 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

He played only once in last year’s competition, scoring a half-century from number three.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said the Yorkshire opener, next season’s beneficiary at Emerald Headingley.

“It’s nice to be retained by the same franchise, Maratha.

“We have a different coach this year in Andy Flower, who I’ve worked with before. So I can’t wait to get out there.

“I played one game at the end of last year and got 54 off 22 balls or something like that. Hopefully I’ll get more game time and put some performances in.

“It’s very interesting as a format, that’s for sure.

“If you don’t get your skills right in either department, you get found out. I saw that last year with the bowling front especially. If you don’t nail it, with the talent on show, the amount of sixes that get hit is quite incredible.

“It’s very exciting and is over in a flash, but you still have a bit more time than you think as a batsman. You don’t have to go from ball one.

“I batted three in the innings I played, and there was a wicket in the first or second over. But it still wasn’t just going straight away. You still have to give yourself a little bit of time to get used to the pitch and bowlers. After that, it’s a case of clearing the ropes.”

Lyth, 32, has played 113 career T20 games, scoring 2,605 runs. He is Yorkshire’s leading run-scorer in that particular format, so has a vast amount of short-form experience.

But he is still eager to learn and improve, with this next two or three weeks an ideal opportunity given the host of star names in Abu Dhabi. Dwayne Bravo, Yuvraj Singh, Lasith Malinga and Chris Lynn are all going to be team-mates.

“If you can’t learn from the players who are going to be over there, you won’t learn at all,” he said.

“It’s like the 100-ball competition next year, that’s going to be fantastic for our domestic players to play with and against some of the best players in the world.

“People are going to be improving their games a hell of a lot over the next two to three years in that format as well.”

Lyth will be playing in the ECB’s new Hundred competition for Headingley-based side Northern Superchargers, with powerful opener Lynn also in their squad.

Lyth added: “I’ll be getting to know Chris. It’s only two weeks out there in Abu Dhabi, but I’ll definitely be sitting down having a drink with him and talking about the Hundred and coming to Headingley.

“He’s going to be a particularly important person to tap into because of where we both bat.

“He’s one of the very best in the world.”