RYAN Sidebottom's bowling display to get us 11 wickets in beating Warwickshire at Edgbaston last week was unbelievable.

When he starts off with the new ball, he sets the tone for us and opening batters know they've got to be on top form to combat him. We have people in our team who can change games and he's certainly one of them.

He gives our attack a different dimension. As you saw with the left-armer swinging it back into the right-hander, it's so dangerous.

A mention has also got to go to Jonny Bairstow, whose first-innings century gave us something to bowl at. Then Ryan was exceptional in taking six in the first innings and five in the second.

He obviously has international quality and experience – so hypothetically, could he still do a job for England in the Ashes? He would gets wickets, there's no doubt about that.

But at 37 years old, Ryan knows that he's had his time playing for England. And that's probably why he's so content doing his job for Yorkshire, taking wickets and trying to win things.

I can't imagine playing three back-to-back Test matches doing him any favours either.

Having torn a calf in the opening week of the season at Worcester, missing the next five Championship matches, to come back the way he has in the last three matches is testament to himself and the support staff.

He nearly came back a week earlier but he wasn't quite ready. They allowed him an extra week to make sure that he was fine. We're quite blessed that we can afford to do that with the squad of players that we have.

Despite being in the latter stages of his career and having won the Championship four times, he enjoys his cricket and the company of the lads so much and that's why his desire to succeed is so strong.

He's enjoying it so much and he's still good enough. That's an important thing. He's still striving for wickets and silverware.

If he was maybe in a dressing room where he didn't perhaps get on as well with the lads, he may have called it a day. But the dressing room we have at the minute is brilliant.

Winning the Championship title last year has helped us get into a habit of winning matches – but it has also showed us just how hard you need to work to gain success in this league.

We are in a very strong position at the top of the table, no doubt. But there's a lot of big games to go and we will keep trying to nail our skills. Nothing will change that.

I've found some rhythm in my batting over the last couple of weeks. I'm hitting the ball as I'd want to now and I'm just looking forward to batting – hopefully in some of this week's Twenty20 matches.

* Alex Lees' column is sponsored by Pennine Business Partners. Blue chip quality outsourced services delivered by specialists – marketing, human resources and health and safety. For more information call 01484-841776 or click www.penninebusinesspartners.com.