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Sidebottom return boosts Vikings

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Ryan Sidebottom returns to the Yorkshire squad for their NatWest T20 Blast battle with Roses rivals Lancashire Lightning at Headingley tomorrow but the Vikings continue to be without their England trio.

The veteran left-arm seamer had been struggling with a hamstring injury and has not featured in the shortest form of the game since Yorkshire's North Group opener against the Northamptonshire Steelbacks in mid-May.

But he returned to action in Yorkshire's LV= County Championship Division One victory over Warwickshire this week and is back in T20 contention. 

Sidebottom's comeback boosts a Vikings squad still shorn of Joe Root, Gary Ballance and Liam Plunkett.

The absence of those star men has not hindered Yorkshire's T20 bid thus far - they have won three of their five matches - and wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow expects youngsters like Alex Lees and Olly Robinson to continue to shine.

"We're very confident in our squad, whether it be in the championship or the T20s,"Bairstow told ecb.co.uk.

"We've got a strong squad and we believe everyone coming in will help us as a team."

Jack Brooks has been rested by the Vikings, while Tim Bresnan, Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashid return having missed the championship match at Edgbaston. 

Australia batsman Usman Khawaja will make his competition debut for joint-leaders Lancashire alongside Jos Buttler, whose head-to-head with Aaron Finch will be closely watched by a capacity crowd inside Headingley.

Finch grabbed the headlines with his powerful 88 off 55 balls in Yorkshire's narrow victory in the reverse fixture at Emirates Old Trafford and all eyes will be on Buttler to see if he can steal the limelight tomorrow night.

* Last season’s meeting between Yorkshire and Lancashire at Headingley was tied. Yorkshire won six of their eight completed home Twenty20 Roses matches before this.

 * Junaid Khan has taken the most wickets bowled in NatWest T20 Blast 2014 – seven of his 14 wickets have come through him hitting the stumps.


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