ANDREW Gale is backing Jonny Tattersall to fill the shoes of departing West Indian overseas Nicholas Pooran, albeit in a different fashion with the bat.

Pooran is returning home having completed his five-game Vitality Blast stint at Northampton today, a clash which was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rain.

The left-hander is due to take part in a limited overs home series against India, starting on Saturday, prior to the Caribbean Premier League through September and into October.

Unfortunately, due to rain, wicketkeeper batsman Pooran has only played in three North Group games, showing glimpses of his power with the bat with scores of 67 and 43 against Leicestershire and Lancashire.

Tattersall will now return to wicketkeeping duties and bat in the middle order having not played in those two games, with coach Gale happy that he has made the most of a short period away from match action.

“We’ll lose that explosive power down the order because we’ve seen what Nicholas can do,” said the coach amidst the Wantage Road rain.

“But there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

“In Tatt, you’re getting someone who’s not as explosive and goes about things in a different way. But he can still win you a game. He’s a very, very smart cricketer.

“We wanted him to refresh mentally because this year has been tough for him.

“There’s been a lot of expectation on him this year as the senior keeper that he didn’t have last.

“He’s done alright, but has found it tough at times with the gloves.

“He certainly looks a lot more refreshed and ready to get back to it. He’s done some work on his keeping, and he’ll be ready to get back to it for the rest of the season.”

The No Result against Northants was Yorkshire’s second of the North Group campaign so far, leaving them with four points from five outings.

That includes two losses and their only victory so far at Leicestershire last Tuesday.

After persistent rain throughout the day in Northampton, umpires Neil Mallender and Ben Debenham called the game off just after 3pm.

The Vikings’ race for a top-four finish and quarter-final qualification resumes against defending champions Worcestershire Rapids at Emerald Headingley on Friday (6.30pm), the first of back-to-back home games with Birmingham Bears visiting on Sunday afternoon. The latter will be family fun day.

Captain Steve Patterson is also expected to return to action against Worcester after his period of rest, as is England World Cup winner Adil Rashid and will be available for the rest of the competition.

Rashid managed a shoulder injury throughout the World Cup, but Gale said: “That’s looking good at the moment.”

Gale also confirmed that the White Rose have no plans to replace Pooran with another overseas player for the remaining nine group games and any potential knockout cricket.

The former captain added: “At this stage, we’re not going to replace him.

“We’ve had a look at it, and replacing a player like that, you can’t really do it like for like because there aren’t many of those players out there.

“There’s a lot of cricket going around the minute. There’s the Canada (Global T20) tournament going on, and there’s a lot of players playing in that.”