AS WELL as working hard to improve my batting this winter, something else I concentrated on was trying to make myself a better slip catcher.

Fielding in the slips is something I’ve done a lot of during my career, and I’ve always enjoyed.

Fielding there is a specialist skill, and it seems to be going quite well at the minute, with myself at first and Jack Leaning at second taking almost all of the chances that have come our way during the County Championship matches against Worcester and Nottinghamshire.

It is vital that you have a couple of decent slip catchers in your team because chances can be quite rare.

At the minute, myself and Jack are in there, but we have to keep catching well.

Adam Lyth is a brilliant slipper, and we have him to come back into the team.

As an opening batsman fielding in the slips, you have to be able to divide the two areas of the game.

There are times when you think about your batting whilst in the field, but when the bowler is running in, you have to be switched on and you can’t afford to think about anything else.

On other matters, I hear that Dickie Bird has tipped me to be a future England captain. I don’t know about that!

Listening to Dickie, he believes there should be 11 Yorkshiremen playing in the England team, so I wouldn’t read too much into it.

I enjoy captaincy, and the Yorkshire side was an enjoyable one to lead for the couple of matches I was in charge whilst Andrew Gale was unavailable.

We’re a group of professional lads, everyone knows what’s expected of them, and the ship almost steers itself.

But my only focus is scoring runs for Yorkshire and helping them to win some more matches.

 

  • Alex Lees’ column is sponsored by Pennine Business Partners. Blue chip quality outsourced services delivered by specialists – marketing, human resources and health and safety. For more information call 01484-841776 or click www.penninebusinesspartners.com.