Gillespie hoping Head can help bolster Yorkshire campaign

The Australian batsman is set to arrive at Headingley this weekend and play his first match against Notts in the T20 Blast at Trent Bridge on Friday.

Head will travel to the Oval next week to link up with the Yorkshire squad on duty for the County Championship game against Surrey that starts on Monday.

It will give the 22-year-old the chance to get some practice and to get to know his new Yorkshire team-mates.

First-team coach Jason Gillespie, whose side continue their T20 campaign against Birmingham at Headingley tonight (7pm start), said: “Travis will arrive at the weekend and be with us next week at the Oval.

“We thought about him playing in a second team game at Headingley next week, but, as much as anything, we just want him to get over a bit of jet-lag.

“He can come and have a net at the Oval and use the facilities there and get to know his team-mates.

“He’s an excellent player and an impressive lad, and I think that people will see that.”

Gillespie, who coached Head during the winter at the Big Bash franchise Adelaide Strikers, said the player will be with Yorkshire until at least the end of August.

The left-hander will be available to play in all forms of the game and will take over from Kane Williamson, who is set to leave Yorkshire at the end of next week due to his commitments with New Zealand.

“Travis will be here at least until the end of August,” confirmed Gillespie.

“We do have the scope to have him around potentially for the rest of the season, but we’ll have to see how it goes.”

Yorkshire welcome back Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid and David Willey from one-day international duty for tonight’s game.

The club are second-bottom of the North Group after two wins from eight games, but Gillespie is confident that they can still reach the quarter-finals.

“We still think that we can qualify,” he said. “You’ve got to have that attitude.

“If you don’t have that, then the chances really are next to nil.

“We’ve got the attitude, we’ve got the squad, we’ve got the players and we’ve got the desire.

“For me, I think they’re pretty decent ingredients for success.”

However, Gillespie admitted that significant improvement is needed for Yorkshire to reach the knockout stages.

Despite making a concerted attempt to improve their T20 form, the club are still struggling to find a consistently successful formula.

“We know in T20 that we just need to win games,” he said.

“But there’s no magic bullet, there’s no secret formula. Win is the operative word.

“But the key for us is having our focus on what’s going to allow us to win as opposed to focusing on the end result.”

Yorkshire (from): Ballance, Bresnan, Coad, Hodd, Leaning, Lees (captain), Lyth, Patterson, Plunkett, Rafiq, Rashid, Rhodes, Willey, Williamson.

Sam Northeast (75 off 42 balls) led the way as Kent maintained their one-day stranglehold over Somerset with a 12-run NatWest T20 Blast South Group win at Taunton.

The visitors posted 187-5, Somerset replying with 175-9.