ALEX LEES COLUMN: The start of the new season is always an exciting time and we’re all ready to go against Worcestershire at New Road tomorrow.

It has been a productive pre-season for us in terms of valuable match practice both at home and abroad, runs and wickets shared around and beating a strong MCC side in Abu Dhabi.

We also got a lot out of this week’s draw against Leeds/Bradford at Headingley and the chances are that we would have won the game had it been a four-day game because we bowled well and had them in trouble during the final session.

It has been well documented that we are going to be without a number of players at the start of the season due to England calls, but we have to forget about that and move on now with the players available, who are all capable of performing well and contributing to a winning side.

Continued success is something that we are aiming for as a county and I’m confident that we will be there or thereabouts in the Championship come the end of the season and challenge in one-day cricket as well.

It will be a huge honour to captain the side against Worcester in the absence of Andrew Gale. I have had experience leading a side coming through the Academy and the second team, and I really enjoyed the four days I had in Abu Dhabi.

I will be reaching the grand old age of 22 on Tuesday and a win at Worcester would be a great birthday present. A big 100 to go with it would make it a perfect one.

In terms of my own ambitions for the season, I can’t worry about anything such as England because a lot of things can happen.

I am aware there is an extra responsibility on myself with Adam Lyth in the West Indies, so I have just got to try and start the season well and concentrate on doing well for Yorkshire.

As ever, Division One will be very competitive this year.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly who will be our main rivals because there are a lot of strong teams in there. All it takes is someone to get on a roll, win three or four on the bounce and all of a sudden they are challengers.

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