Ryan Sidebottom: Yorkshire and England left-armer's career highs

The 2017 summer will be Ryan Sidebottom's last as a professional cricketer, calling to an end a career spanning two decades and 22 Tests with England.

Sidebottom made his England Test debut against Pakistan in 2001, and though he would wait six years to win another cap, he'd end up with 79 Test wickets at an average of 28.24, plus a World T20 triumph to his name in 2010.

The 39-year-old left armer has a staggering 737 first-class wickets already to his name, and has won five County Championship titles - two with Nottinghamshire (2005, 2010), sandwiched between three successes with home county Yorkshire (2001, 2014, 2015).

Here we celebrate a few of his greatest moments…

Test debut

Called up to the Test team for the first time in 2001 due to the part he was playing in Yorkshire's push toward to the County Championship crown that year, Sidebottom's debut against Pakistan at Lord's wasn't quite the stuff dreams are made of.

He went wicketless in his 20 overs across the two innings, conceeding 64 runs, and though England would convincingly win the Test by an innings and nine runs, Sidebottom was swiftly discarded from the team, seemingly destined to follow in the footsteps of his father Arnie - who played against Australia in a 1985 Test at Trent Bridge - in being a 'one-cap wonder', until…

England return

Six years later his country came calling again, looking for someone to replace the injured Matthew Hoggard for the second Test against the West Indies and exploit the early-season swing on offer in the very un-Caribbean like conditions of late May in England.

At his spiritual home of Headingley, Sidebottom did just that. He took four wickets in either innings, finishing with match figures of 8-86, as England bowled their visitors out for under 150 twice and secured an utterly emphatic innings-and-283-run win. It was the first of three wins for the home side in the four-match series - Sidebottom claiming a first Test five-for in the final game in Durham.

Hat-trick hero

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

With England struggling during the first Test of their tour of New Zealand in 2008, in Hamilton - conceding a 122-run first-innings deficit - Sidebottom single-handedly dragged them back into the contest, taking the 37th hat-trick in Test cricket, and the 11th by an Englishman. Stephen Fleming (66) was the first to fall to the final ball of one over, and then after Monty Panesar removed Brendon McCullum (0) at the other end, Sidebottom returned to snare Matthew Sinclair (2) - thanks to an incredible catch by Alastair Cook at gully - and Jacob Oram (0) lbw.

While England would ultimately suffer a heavy 189-run defeat, the subsequent 2-1 series win represented a changing of the guard, as the final surviving members of England's devastating 2005 Ashes attack - Hoggard and Steve Harmison - made way for James Anderson and Stuart Broad. It was Sidebottom though, who truly starred - he took a staggering 24 wickets at 17.08 in the series, his 6-49 in that second innings of the first Test the first of three five-wicket hauls which included a Test-best 7-47 in Napier.

World T20 triumph

Sidebottom's selection ahead of Anderson for England's team at the 2010 World T20 raised some eyebrows but he finished as England's joint-leading wicket-taker for the tournament with Graeme Swann, with a return of 10 wickets at 16.00 over the seven matches.

Two of those wickets came crucially in the final against Australia, Sidebottom picking up Shane Watson (2) third ball, and then Brad Haddin (1) in the third over as the Aussies slipped to 8-3. They never truly recovered and England eased to their 148-run target with three overs to spare to win their first ever ICC world event.

Yorkshire success

While Nottinghamshire can too claim ownership of some of Sidebottom's finer years on the county circuit, it has been his success with Yorkshire in the twilight of his career - since international retirement in 2010 - that has really stood out.

Sidebottom claimed a career-high 62 first-class wickets in 2011, and then 53 in 2013, good enough for second spot. Also, he was a key component of Yorkshire's back-to-back County Championship winning attack - the team losing only two of their 32 matches over the course of 2014 and 2015, winning 19 of them - with Sidebottom's 49 and 41-wicket hauls coming at career-best averages of 18.46 and 17.90 respectively.