WHEN it comes to trying to win cricket matches Shaun Udal isn’t the type of captain who’s going to die wondering.

'Aggressive’ has been the byword of the Middlesex skipper in the run up to the new season, in terms of the style of cricket he wants to play in pursuit of the No.1 priority - promotion back to the County Championship’s top tier.

And on the eve of the first match of the campaign against Glamorgan, which starts at Lord’s today (Wednesday), Udal made clear he’ll play an attacking game.

He said: "I just want us to be positive and aggressive. "I don’t mind if we win eight and lose eight as long as it’s enough to get us promoted.

"I’d rather do that than win three and draw 13 because I don’t like that sort of cricket.

Udal makes no bones about the fact the Lord’s pitch is unlikely to help the promotion cause, being too much in favour of the batsmen.

It’s the age-old issue of being tenants at Lord’s. But it hasn’t stopped Udal and director of cricket Angus Fraser taking the matter up with the head groundsman.

"Gus and I have chatted with Mick Hunt and said to him we don’t want rubbish wickets, but we’re not going to be worried if there’s a little bit of life in them," he said

"To get 20 wickets at Lord’s is almost a rarity. When it gets flat here it doesn’t spin and it doesn’t seam much.

"But if we can find a way to score our runs faster to give ourselves more time to bowl sides out, then that’s what we’ll have to do."

In his search for those 20 wickets, Udal stressed he’s unlikely to take the safety first option of playing six batsmen this season, at Lord’s or anywhere else.

He added: "Early season you are possibly looking at playing an extra batter but then that only leaves you with three seamers.

"If one of them then breaks down, which happened a couple of times last season, then we’ve we’ve got to get 96 overs out of the other two plus me.

"So I’m not a fan of the three seamers and one spinner option. I think to have a fifth bowler is pretty important."