Luke Procter

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. Seven years later those opportunities had become infrequent under a new coach, Glen Chapple, and he upped sticks and joined Northamptonshire, where he has thrived.

He emerged as a key player at Northants, most notably during the summer of 2022. Not only was it comfortably his best batting return in a season - 961 runs at 53.38 with three centuries - but his consistency ensured Northants preserved their Division One status for the first time in four attempts. That leadership was rewarded with red ball captaincy from 2023.

Procter first made his mark on the domestic game in a Lancashire's Championship-winning 2011. 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 win. 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