Gareth Batty column: It’s snow joke playing cricket in this weather

I’ve never played cricket at the North Pole but this week we had a good idea of what that might feel like.

This game can always surprise us but a blizzard during a County Championship match was a new one for many of the players. On day three of our game against Somerset, we were forced off by hail and snow, and there was a decent covering on the outfield.

I can’t remember ever playing in such cold conditions. In the late 1990s, I was carrying the drinks for Surrey when we lost a day to snow in a game at Durham, but this was as bad it has been for me as a player.

Look around the country and you see the same story. Middlesex players fielding in woolly hats during their game at Durham. Snow and hail at Derby, where ice had to be scraped off the covers before the start of play.

It’s particularly difficult for fast bowlers. During a spell, their body temperature rises, but then when they stop it can drop very quickly — and that’s when the risk of soreness and niggles is greater. We won’t know whether Mark Footitt’s side injury in the Somerset game happened for these reasons, but the cold weather certainly can’t have helped. Improved equipment means that the days of wearing three and four sweaters are long gone, although Kumar Sangakkara certainly looked very well wrapped-up when we were in the field.

The weather made it very difficult to force a win, despite our efforts on the final day, but it was great to see Zafar Ansari among the wickets on his comeback from injury.

Zafar would have toured with England last winter had it not been for a broken thumb and I’m convinced he can force his way back into the reckoning again. I don’t see any better young spinners in the country.