Allrounder Luke Procter, a workmanlike left-handed batsman and a whippy top side of medium bowler, gradually found himself used as a Championship specialist after making his debut for Lancashire in 2010, but seven years later those opportunities had become infrequent under a new coach, Glen Chapple, and he upped sticks and joined Northants.

He first made his mark the following season as did so many young Lancastrians in a Championship-winning year. Having begun the campaign eager to secure his place in Lancashire's one-day side, he not only achieved that ambition but also made a significant contribution to the county's title-winning County Championship team. Half-centuries against Sussex at Hove and Durham at Liverpool contributed to a total of 366 runs at 40.66, which put him top of the county's batting averages.

Procter made his full four-day debut against Somerset at Taunton in 2010, having made a strong impression in one-day games, notably with an unbeaten 64 that helped clinch a win over Worcestershire in a Clydesdale Bank 40 match and by scoring 97 in a 50-over match against West Indies A.

His 2012 season was disrupted by injury. He sat out two months with a torn thigh muscle before returning for the last four matches of the season, when he was tried, with some success, as an opener. He played all bar one of Lancashire's four-day matches in 2013, but a batting average of 34 and bowling number of 42 were a touch low and high respectively.

When Lancashire returned to Division One of the Championship in 2016, he was used as a specialist No. 3 in a search for top-order stability and was an ever-present, striking two hundreds. A dogged 137 against Hampshire was a career-best. Lightly used the following season, he spent the last month on loan at Northants and opted to join them full time in the close season.

As a sideline, he has been training as a hairdresser, even offering free haircuts to Lancashire team-mates in a rudimentary salon in the Old Trafford dressing room toilets.

ESPNcricinfo staff