THERE weren't many grumbles from within our dressing room regarding availability this week, despite us losing Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid for the ongoing County Championship match against Middlesex at Headingley.

We have also gained two key players in Gary Ballance and Adam Lyth, which is a big boost.

Rash's unavailability means we have James Middlebrook back in the squad and he is a real quality off-spin bowler available to us if we need him.

Midders may have only played one four-day match for us this season, having been released by Northamptonshire, but he's played over 200 first-class matches and you don't fall off the horse that quickly.

He has been getting some overs in in the leagues – and he was superb against Warwickshire in late April to take eight wickets in the match.

Northants probably shouldn't have let him go, in truth, but we've been very opportunistic in acquiring his services for a couple of games and it's certainly our gain.

Our matches against Middlesex last year played a huge part in us winning the title.

Losing to them at Lord's early on, with Chris Rogers playing a freak innings and getting 240 not out, kept us honest and gave us that drive.

To then turn them over in the manner we did at Scarborough in August was hugely important. We didn't have that game all our own way but we kept fighting and managed to finish them off in the final session.

Our wins against Middlesex and Sussex at Scarborough were probably the most pivotal part of our season.

Hopefully this week's game will help us set down a marker for the rest of the summer.

They are playing some decent cricket at the moment and have some bowlers in good form. James Harris, for example, has been quiet since he moved but now he's showing what he used to do at Glamorgan and is picking up wickets.

This league has been really interesting this year. Everyone seems to be beating everyone. There's not a clear favourite. But I'm pretty confident that if we play how we can do, we'll get a result this week.

In terms of my own form, I need to find that bit more consistency – especially with being a senior player in the team. It's been frustrating the last few games. I've been hitting the ball okay but not brilliant.

Since scoring a hundred against Nottinghamshire in the second week of the season, I haven't really been able to get a fluency in my cricket, perhaps down to a couple of breaks in the fixture list.

But there's still three quarters of the season to go and I'm looking to make this one a really good year for myself and for Yorkshire.

We were all absolutely delighted to see Lythy score his maiden Test ton at Headingley last week. He's an infectious character and a very popular member of our team.

Hopefully he gets a decent run in the team now and it will be the first of many.

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