Andrew Gale says his bowlers hold the advantage as Yorkshire prepare to face star duo Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting tomorrow.

The table-topping Tykes host winless Surrey in the LV= County Championship at Headingley as they search for their fifth win from nine matches ahead of the three-and-a-half week break for Twenty20.

Surrey are seen by many as a club in crisis having sacked coaching duo Chris Adams and Ian Salisbury earlier this week duo to a poor start to the summer in four-day and 40-over cricket.

They are currently sat seventh in division one and just eight points above the two relegation places on the back of two defeats and six draws.

But they will field current and former Test duo Pietersen, playing his first game after three months out with a heavily bruised right knee, and Ponting in their top order.

White Rose captain Gale however, has told his bowlers to relish the challenge.

“We won’t be changing the way we play because Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting are playing,” he insisted, describing the latter as ‘one of my idols’.

“My message to the players would be ‘when you wanted to become a professional cricketer, you’d have wanted to test yourselves against the best. Now’s your opportunity’. They’ll be nice scalps to get for someone.

“They’re only human, and it can only take one ball. Headingley can be a tough place to bat at times, so we'll have to see.”

Yorkshire head into tomorrow’s fixture with a lead of 8.5 points over Durham, who were deducted 2.5 points for breach of team salary payments in 2012 before the season started.

They won their last match against Middlesex by ten wickets at Lord’s last week, and will be boosted by the return of Gary Ballance, who has been named in their squad for today’s Yorkshire Bank 40 clash with Middlesex at Headingley.

Yorkshire will reveal today whether Jack Brooks is fit enough to return to action against Surrey after six weeks with out with a broken left thumb. The ex-Northamptonshire fast bowler is waiting for the green light from his specialist.

“I’m pleased with where we are at, but nothing’s won by the end of June,” continued Gale.

“I keep saying to the boys that there’s no hidden formula to the way we’re winning games. All we’ve been doing is hammering the basics. If we keep doing that, everything else will look after itself.

“If you’d have said at the halfway stage we’d be top of the league, I would have bitten your hand off. The cricket we've played means we deserve to be there.”

Even without Ballance and Brooks at Lord’s last week, Gale has revealed that he always had complete faith that his team would return an impressive performance.

“A lot of people have said we were down to the bare bones with injuries, but I never really saw it like that,” he added.

“I was never negative or pessimistic about the selection in any way. I knew Alex Lees deserved his opportunity because he’s been in good form in the second team, and you know what you’re going to get with Liam Plunkett.

“Although there were a few important players missing, I was confident because someone’s always stepping up this year. To win by lunch on the last day was a fantastic effort.”