YORKSHIRE will go to Lord’s next week needing to beat Middlesex to win their third successive Specsavers County Championship title.

Leaders Middlesex drew their penultimate round clash with Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford yesterday, leaving the gap at nine points ahead of Tuesday’s blockbuster encounter.

That means Yorkshire must beat Middlesex and better third-placed Somerset’s haul in their match against relegated Nottinghamshire at Taunton to seal a hat-trick of Division One crowns.

Middlesex have 213 points, Yorkshire 204 and Somerset 203.

Yorkshire have lost on their last two visits to Lord’s in 2014 and 2015, but they won there by 10 wickets in 2013 when Alex Lees and Andrew Gale scored first-innings centuries.

Middlesex, 72-4 overnight and leading by 140, declared yesterday to set Lancashire a target of 309 in just 44 overs.

England’s Jos Buttler opened the batting for the hosts and hit 26 off 14 balls as they had a brief dart at the target. But they batted out comfortably for the draw.

Yorkshire will be without Australian overseas Jake Lehmann for the trip to the Home of Cricket, although seamer Steve Patterson is available again after an improvement in his father’s health.

The White Rose will ask the ECB if there has been any change in the availability of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow ahead of England’s forthcoming tour to Bangladesh, although Jason Gillespie has admitted he is not holding out much hope.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” he said. “We’ll keep you posted on that, but I’d say it’s doubtful.

“You always ask if your best players are going to be available, but I think it’s been made pretty clear that they’re not going to be available.

“We feel we have the squad to get the job done. It’s highly doubtful those two will be there.”

“Jake’s going back to Australia, which is a disappointment. But that happens.

“We’ve had David Willey sitting on the sidelines this week, so there’s a chance he could play.”

One England player available for Lord’s is Test player Gary Ballance, who is today expected to be named in the Test squad for next month’s two-match series in Bangladesh.

Ballance played in each of the four home Test Matches against Pakistan, scoring 195 runs with a top score of 70 in the third Test victory at Edgbaston.

Since the end of that series, Ballance has enjoyed a productive spell in a Yorkshire shirt.

He has scored two fifties and a century in his last four Championship appearances, but only one and three in the 10-wicket defeat against Somerset at Headingley earlier this week.

“I’m feel really good at the moment,” he said. “I’m playing nicely.

“I got a hundred against Notts at Scarborough a couple of weeks ago on quite a tricky pitch and again at Hampshire, which was quite tough.

“I always want to be better, though. It would have been good had I been able to kick on with a big score in one of the Test Matches.

“That would have definitely filled me with a lot more confidence.

“But I felt like I was playing nicely in all the Tests. I got starts, but got some decent balls and found ways of getting out.

“Hopefully I can kick on this winter if I get the opportunity.”