Sidelined Sid is ready to begin his final mission
Lancashire v Yorkshire May 19-22, Old Trafford, Manchester, 11:00
RYAN Sidebottom admits that a small part of him gets irritated when he sees his teammates taking wickets, so it is hardly surprising that the veteran seamer is raring to make his County Championship bow today.
The 39-year-old has missed the start of the new campaign with a hamstring injury he picked up in pre-season, but with some second XI and club cricket under his belt, he’s ready to lead the Yorkshire attack again.
And Sidebottom could hardly have picked a better moment to return, as a Roses clash with the county’s oldest rivals, Lancashire, beckons at Old Trafford.
This is the former England man’s final summer before retirement, so nursing an injury was particularly frustrating, and he concedes he has been straining at the leash to finally get going.
“As usual when you’re out injured, you do the hard yards in the gym and you’re champing at the bit to play,” explained Sidebottom.
“Especially when the team’s out there, you want to be with them whether you’re winning or losing.
“I still get that buzz of seeing other players taking wickets, but also it does kind of annoy me in a nice way!”
Sidebottom’s was the final wicket to fall in the Lord’s thriller last September as Toby RolandJones won the Championship for Middlesex.
That hamstring injury took its toll early in the season but the left-armer is raring to go again now.
Sidebottom added: “It’s been really frustrating. I probably would have been fit for the last game at Hampshire, but with me being a little bit older, it takes a bit longer to get the body in shape.
“I’ve done my stuff, I’m ready, and hopefully I can play these 11 games and add to the team and contribute as I’ve always tried to do throughout my career.”
Yorkshire have suffered a mixed start to their County Championship season with a win, a draw and a loss, seeing them lie fourth in the Division One – nine points behind early leaders Surrey.
However, they hold an enviable four-day record over Lancashire in recent times, not having lost to them since July 2011 – six long years of pain for the Red Rose.
Yet this year feels different, as Lancashire are currently two places above their rivals in the standings having yet to taste defeat and they also have Haseeb
Hameed and James Anderson available for today’s clash, while Yorkshire’s five-strong England contingent will not be playing.
Yorkshire progressed through to the knockout stages of the One-Day Cup while Lancashire fell agonisingly short. But Red Rose skipper Steven Croft is confident that the recent hoodoo against their rivals is finally about to end.
“We’re in a great position as a team, and I think they’ll be wary of us,” he said.“If you look at all of our Championship matches so far, we haven’t been outplayed in any of them, so it’s been a great start.
“Yorkshire is the fixture that I look for first in any competition. Unfortunately, we lost the onedayer at Headingley a couple of weeks ago, which was a blow.
“But we have four more games against them, and hopefully we can get the four wins.”