AZEEM RAFIQ is itching to play an integral part in bringing silverware to Headingley.

Rafiq only played once in the County Championship title success of 2014 before being released and missing the successful defence in 2015.

It is something that is frustrating the off-spinner, especially given he was in the team which lost to Middlesex in the Championship title decider at Lord’s last September.

Now, Rafiq is a regular in Yorkshire’s NatWest T20 Blast team and agrees with the suggestion that 20-over cricket is where the county’s best chance of success lies this summer.

The Vikings may have made a mixed start to this season’s Blast with four points from four matches, but it is early days.

There are 10 games to play, starting with Birmingham Bears at Headingley tomorrow night.

It is the first of three home games on the spin in six days.

“This tournament is huge for me,” said 26-year-old Rafiq. “I want to be part of a winning squad.

“In 2014, I played in one game in the Championship and obviously left. My one burning ambition is to win a trophy with this set of lads.

“If I can kick on as well, brilliant. But I just want to win a trophy.

“I think at this stage you’d say so (Blast best chance of a trophy in 2017). It’s going to be a tough run-in in the Championship. I wouldn’t put it past us, but it’s going to be tough.

“We’ve got the squad to win the T20. We’ve got a few players to come back in as well.”

Rafiq is Yorkshire’s leading Blast wicket-taker this year with six, taking two in each the three matches they have been able to get on the field.

He was particularly impressive with 2-26 from his four overs in Friday’s rain-affected Roses tie at Emirates Old Trafford.

This has come on the back of 18 wickets from nine Royal London one-day Cup matches earlier in the campaign, a haul bettered only by Surrey’s Sam Curran with 20.

“Personally, I’m happy,” he said. “I’ve made a real conscious effort to move my career forwards in terms of the Royal London.

“To finish second leading wicket-taker in the country in that is something I was very pleased with.”

Rafiq is not the first Yorkshire player to describe the early stages of their Blast campaign as “stop-start”.

“Notts was brilliant, Derbyshire not so much. To get called off at Northants and then for more rain to intervene against Lancashire was disappointing,” he said.

“We’ve not quite got going as a team yet in every aspect. If we’ve been good with the bat, we’ve not been as good with the ball and in the field and visa versa.

“The fielding has been one thing that has been really disappointing.

“The good thing with this tournament now is there are a lot of games to come. Fourteen games is a long run.

“You seem to find every year that it’s not necessarily how you start, it’s how you finish the group stage.”

Birmingham also sit on four points having won two and lost two, with Rafiq adding: “Throughout their eleven they’ve got good players, the likes of Sam Hain, Ian Bell - he’s world-class. Jeetan Patel is the best spinner in the country.

“It will be tough, and we’ve got to be on our A game.”

Yorks squad: Bresnan c, Carver, Coad, Fisher, Handscomb w, Kohler-Cadmore, Leaning, Lees, Lyth, Marsh, Patterson, Rafiq, Rashid, Willey.