The most noticeable difference since moving to Yorkshire has been the northern weather.

The first game of pre-season saw me scraping ice off my windscreen, so it’s a huge understatement to say the heatwave has been most welcome to play cricket in.

It’s clearly helping me too as I took 5-21 in a T20 match at Headingley on Tuesday night!

My first season with Yorkshire has been a bit stop-start after breaking my thumb in May.

It was particularly frustrating as we were flying in the County Championship and I had been among the wickets.

Nonetheless, we are still top of the league just after the halfway point of the season and there is a good buzz about Yorkshire this year.

It is helped by being the club’s 150th anniversary and a big deal has been made about how good it would be for us to bring the championship back to Headingley come September.

It wasn’t until I joined that I really realised and embraced the history of Yorkshire and understood how well followed and supported they are.

We outnumber opposition supporters at most grounds and the recent ‘Battle of The Roses’ T20 fixture against Lancashire was a 17,000 sell-out and had an unbelievable atmosphere.

Although I was made to fetch it in my four overs, I couldn’t fail to enjoy the occasion.

Why as a professional athlete wouldn’t you want to test your skills out under high-pressure in front of a packed ground and the Sky cameras?

  • THE main event of the summer is under way and I’m looking forward to the Ashes as much as any other cricket fan.

I’d love to be involved and haven’t given up trying to represent England. But for the remainder of the summer I’ll be watching from my sofa with great excitement.

I feel it will be a very close series, particularly now Australia have appointed Darren Lehmann.

As a coach, he has won every trophy in domestic cricket in Oz as well as tasting success in the IPL.

I believe Lehmann will galvanise and unite the Australians. He will take the pressure off the players and as a positive guy, will give them more aggression and fight.

As for England, having recently been on the receiving end of a Kevin Pietersen 170-odd pasting, I can confirm he is certainly back and in good form, despite scoring only 14 yesterday. It didn’t matter what field we set when Yorkshire played Surrey – KP continually found the boundary with a vast array of shots.

You could tell he was going through his repertoire and putting on a bit of a show, but it was a lesson in batting and certainly the best knock I’ve had the pleasure of bowling at.

Unless we had men fielding in the crowd he would probably still be batting now!

Let’s hope he gives the Aussies a few lessons over the next few weeks.