YORKSHIRE return to pre-season training today with Andrew Gale determined to play a key part in the county’s future limited overs plans after being left out of the one-day team towards the end of last season.

The LV= County Championship-winning captain was overlooked for the second half of the Royal London one-day Cup campaign after resigning as white ball skipper in early August.

Not so long ago, 31-year-old Gale, Yorkshire’s beneficiary in 2016, was regarded as their most consistent batsman in the short formats, but his form as an aggressive opener has dipped during the last three years.

He has only scored one List 'A' 50 since the end of 2012 and only two in Twenty20 cricket.

“I want to really get back to playing how I used to play,” said the left-hander, whose most prolific years against the white ball came in 2010 and 2011 when he passed 50 14 times in both formats.

“I want to make contributions and be in the mix. I want to play as many games as I can. I would be kidding myself if I was to think that I will play every game of the season, but it’s certainly a target. I want to get back in that fold.

“I worked really hard on my limited overs stuff last winter, and I think I did okay in Twenty20 without tearing any trees up.

“I was available for selection (after resigning as captain), I just wasn’t picked. That’s obviously something I need to work on, getting back in the team.

“Pre-season is going to be big for me in terms of giving Dizzy (first-team coach Jason Gillespie) and whoever the captain is a headache.

“With the signing of David Willey, there’s going to be real competition for places. How the club goes about keeping everyone happy is going to be difficult.

“We’ve talked about our Twenty20 and one-day cricket for a number of years now. We’ve got the squad to be competing in one-day and Twenty20 finals, and now we need to start putting that into action.”

On today’s return to training with team-mates who are not abroad playing either grade or international cricket, Gale said: “After the celebrations and a bit of time off, it will be quite nice to get back to some routine to be honest and hit the ground running with the fitness work up until Christmas.

“I’m in decent shape heading into pre-season. I just keep ticking over with the fitness. I find it very difficult to shut down completely during the time off.

"Even when I’m on holiday, I find it difficult to shut down. I did have about ten days where I did nothing, but then I’ve eased into it gradually.

“When you get to my age, I think it’s difficult to let it go and start again. It’s much easier to turn it down and keep doing a bit.”

Alex Lees recently spoke about how he planned to concentrate on fitness work before starting batting again close to Christmas or even into the New Year.

Gale says such decisions are up to the individual and that there is no set format for training.

“No one is pushed into doing any technical skills unless there’s something they desperately need to work on. It’s very much ‘when you want to start, you can start’,” he added.