Yorkshire have one heck of a chance of winning the LV= County Championship in 2013.

Some bookmakers have Andrew Gale’s side down as relegation candidates and a generous 10/1 to clinch the title.

But, although England call-ups will deplete their batting resources at times this summer, they should be strong enough to be looking up rather than down after recruiting bowling duo Liam Plunkett and Jack Brooks.

A fast start will be key in four-day cricket, with England trio Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Tim Bresnan set to feature regularly until next month’s first Test against New Zealand at least.

Captain Andrew Gale has laughed off the bookies’ predictions and stated: “I want to go and win the Champ-ionship this year.

“I don’t want to just come up from the second division and say ‘we’re going to compete and try to avoid relegation’.

“That’s not the right message to send out to the players. The message to them is ‘let’s go and win it’.

“We’ve got the players here with the talent and ability to perform well on a consistent basis and challenge on all fronts.

“To lift the Championship in the 150th year would be fantastic.

“We’ve got to really set our stall out to do that. It’s exciting and we need to embrace that.”

There have to be question marks over Yorkshire’s batting strength if they are without Root, Bairstow and even Gary Ballance for large periods, especially having lost one experienced player from the staff in the retired Anthony McGrath.

Although there are plenty of options to call upon, with players such as Joe Sayers, Alex Lees and Jack Leaning, it all depends on how they return to or take to Cham-pionship cricket.

Yorkshire’s lack of four-day runs cost them their Division One status back in 2011 and the skipper identified it as an area for imp-rovement earlier this week at their annual pre-season media day.

In terms of limited overs cricket, the newly-named Vikings will hope the loss of Mitchell Starc and potentially David Miller does not affect them as they bid to go one better than last season’s Twenty20 final appearance.

And it is definitely a case of ‘must do better’ with regards to 40-over cricket. Since the run to the semi-final in 2010, performances have been disappointing.

It promises to be yet another fascinating summer down at Headingley in all forms of cricket.