I THINK the only thing anybody could get out of this week's draw against Surrey at Headingley, and this is looking at things from a cricket fan's point of view, was watching Kumar Sangakkara's brilliant 180.

It wasn't great for us to be on the end of it but you just have to stand back and appreciate the man. It was definitely one of the best knocks I've seen.

There are probably five to 10 players who are on that level in the world and he's one of them.

Thankfully we've only got to face him once more before he retires when we go to The Oval in September. Fingers crossed, he doesn't bat for a day then as well.

Apart from that, there isn't a great deal more we can say about the game. It was wet and frustrating as a result.

Our cricket has been a bit patchy of late and it doesn't feel like we've been able to get any kind of rhythm to be able to play consistently.

Hopefully we can play well against Somerset at Scarborough from Monday and get going again. It's somewhere we've enjoyed some success – it's a nice pitch there and the lads enjoy it.

We then break for the T20 Blast, which starts next weekend, and that might be a bit of blessing for us as well. It could just refresh us for when we get into the back end of the season.

Next week sees the start of the English Test match summer as England play South Africa at Lord's from Thursday.

The biggest thing from a Yorkshire point of view is Joe Root, who we all wish the best ahead of his captaincy debut.

Rooty didn't say much about next week when he was with us for Surrey. He's the kind of bloke who doesn't want the attention to be on him when he's back with Yorkshire.

He's a great player and I'm sure he will turn into a brilliant captain as well over the next few years. He's got all the right attributes – but most of all, he's a brilliant person. You want those guys to do well.

This is going to be a massive Test series and definitely England's biggest test ahead of the Ashes series in Australia this winter, given it's the West Indies coming over in August and September.

You saw how hard-fought the T20s were last weekend and I expect this Test series to be exactly the same and to bring out the best in everyone on both sides. There are some high-quality players on show and it's going to be a great watch.

I have England down as slight favourites, given they are in home conditions, but South Africa are a really strong team with a great bowling attack. Fingers crossed England can get over the line. I'm going for a 2-1 win.

I believe we have seen the last of Gary Ballance for a while at Yorkshire. He's too good a player not to be playing Test cricket and he's in too good a run of form not to be selected in the squad for that first Test.

If he's with us at Scarborough, it would be a massive surprise. If it's not in the first Test, I definitely think he will play Test cricket at some point before the summer is out.

Gary's obviously been enjoying an amazing run of form this summer, both in the Championship and the Royal London Cup.

After being left out of the England side in India just before Christmas, I think just the time off has done him the world of good. That, in my opinion, has been the biggest thing behind his run of big scores.