Yorkshire will find themselves up against Australia captain Ricky Ponting when they begin the second half of their Championship programme by taking on Somerset at Scarborough tomorrow.

Ponting joined up with Somerset last Thursday, went straight out to bat and made a dashing 20 in their Twenty20 game with Northamptonshire.

But Ponting has now had chance to rest up for a few days and Yorkshire's pace bowlers will have to be on better form than of late if they are to prevent one of the world's best batsmen from flogging them around North Marine Road.

"I am really excited at the prospect of playing for Somerset and have been looking forward to it for some while," said Ponting.

"I have not had too much cricket lately with the cancellation of the tour to Zimbabwe and also missing out on a Test match and I'm eager to score a lot of runs while I am over here."

Despite Ponting's presence, Yorkshire will fancy their chances of winning and moving closer to the top three promotion spots in Division Two.

They are currently fourth and enjoy a game in hand over the top two, Notts and Glamorgan.

Yorkshire have won three of their eight matches but Somerset are still awaiting their first victory and five draws and four defeats leaves them next to the bottom of the table, just five points in front of Durham.

With captain Craig White out for the remainder of the season after a cartilage operation, left-hander Andrew Gale has been drafted into the squad and may open the batting with Matthew Wood.

Gale will make his Championship debut if he plays and has earned his place on the back of some reasonable one-day performances - but Chris Taylor can feel a little unfortunate to be left out.

He has done quite well in two of his three Championship outings this season and in Yorkshire's last game against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl almost a month ago he kept one end blocked up while Phil Jaques made his way towards a brilliant double century at the other.

Definitely making his Championship debut will be wicketkeeper-batsman Ismail Dawood, who is being given an extended trial.

Spinners Richard Dawson and Andy Gray are both included in the squad and both may play if Yorkshire think the pitch will turn later in the game.

Yorkshire (from): Wood, Gale, McGrath, Lehmann, Lumb, Harvey, Dawood, Gray, Dawson, Silverwood, Kirby, Bresnan.