ANDREW Gale is hoping to buck a personal trend of recent summers by getting some early runs on the board when he returns to action as Yorkshire captain against Nottinghamshire tomorrow.

Captain Gale retakes his place in the Yorkshire side having missed the county's last four four-day matches due to an ECB ban for improper conduct dating back to last September.

One of those fixtures was the Division One opener against Worcestershire at New Road earlier this week – while another was the 2014 LV= County Championship title-clinching win against Notts at Trent Bridge, where he will walk out to bat over the next couple of days.

The left-hander has, by his own admission, been a slow starter over the past few seasons, with last year particularly difficult as he was forced to drop himself for the early defeat against Middlesex at Lord's.

But Gale has always enjoyed playing at Trent Bridge, and against Notts in general, and he is hoping that good memories will help spark an immediate run of form.

"I want to get on a roll early on this season," he said ahead of an important fortnight, with matches against Notts and then Warwickshire to follow at Headingley next week.

"The last few years I've been a bit of a slow starter runs-wise for whatever reason. But I enjoy playing at Trent Bridge because I've always done pretty well there. I scored a big hundred there a few years ago, so hopefully I can do that again.

"There will be no bitterness there because I'm playing at the ground where I didn't lift the trophy last year. It's about going there, getting back out on the park and contributing again."

Gale admits that not being able to start the season by contributing to the three-day win at Worcester was "frustrating", although he now is keen to put the whole ECB ban episode behind him.

He said: "You gear up all winter to start you season first game. It was frustrating to turn up on day one at Worcester without the butterflies – but I guess I will have them at Notts."

Much has been made of Gale's absence, with the ECB coming under fire for their handling of a saga which first saw him accused of racism following his September spat with Ashwell Prince.

He was then prevented from fulfilling a lifelong dream at Trent Bridge by lifting the County Championship trophy.

Gale said: "Bar finding out that I wasn't going to lift the trophy, it was still a fantastic day. I had all my family there and they all came into the dressing room afterwards.

"We had a really good drink and celebration together and they are still very fond memories. But I've moved on from that now.

"The main thing is that we got the title. I just want to forget about it. It's done with. I've got the ban out of the way and I just want to get on with playing some cricket."

Gale warmed up for tomorrow by scoring 12 and 71 in a midweek second XI friendly win over Glamorgan at Headingley.

Yorkshire (from): Gale, Brooks, Bresnan, Carver, Fisher, Hodd, Leaning, Lees, Patterson, Pujara, Pyrah, Rhodes.