Captain Andrew Gale is confident that his Yorkshire team will learn from some tough experiences this term to become a stronger unit in next season’s Friends Provident Twenty20 competition.

Gale’s men travel to face Warwickshire at Edgbaston tomorrow night looking for the first of three wins he believes are needed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

The White Rose county have been the model of inconsistency in the North Division, playing some exceptional cricket in their five wins yet throwing in the odd period of kamikaze cricket to damage their record.

Gale said: “I think we’ve probably been a strike bowler light. We’ve also missed David Wainwright in the spin department.

“Somebody like Steve Patterson hasn’t got a lot of experience in Twenty20 cricket, this has been his first year.

“To throw him into bowling in the first six and at the death in every game has been tough on him. Somebody like Azeem Rafiq has got a little bit of exposure at times as well.

“The guys have still learnt fast though. I thought it was going to be a long tournament when we went for 200 in our first two games but we’ve come back from that well as it’s gone on.

“We’ll definitely be better for the experience next year because we have shown that we can play some great cricket.

“It’s just that we’ve maybe been a little bit unlucky in a couple of the other games, like against Northants at home when we were done by Duckworth Lewis.”

It is still possible that Ajmal Shahzad could be the strike bowler that Gale is looking for at Edgbaston tomorrow.

The paceman suffered a suspected hamstring injury during England’s one-day international win against Bangladesh at Edgbaston on Monday but an update is expected from the ECB at some point tomorrow.

Gale was not too hopeful today but said: “Fingers crossed, we’ll have Ajmal and Brezzy (Tim Bresnan) available for Chelmsford next week.

“To have them for that (County Championship match) would be important because it’s a game that I think we can win. Essex are there to be beaten.”

Another man who Gale is desperate to have fighting fit for next Tuesday’s four-day game is Anthony McGrath, who will not play in the last three 20-over fixtures due to a thumb injury.

But Wainwright is set to make his first T20 appearance of the season after coming into the squad in place of Rafiq.