"It felt different this summer," Lawrence tells Phil Walker as we look ahead to England's tantalising winter tour of South Africa by considering the make-up of their top six and analysing the success of their formidable four-pronged pace attack.

Elsewhere, we go big on one of the most captivating county seasons in recent memory, counting down the 40 best performances across all competitions, examining the contrasting campaigns of Warwickshire, Lancashire, Kent, Middlesex and Northants, and getting the inside track from title-winner Ethan Bamber, the bowler of the season, who delivers this month's guest diary.

Raf Nicholson hails the success of the all-conquering Blaze in the women's domestic game, columnist Daniel Norcross picks out the highs and lows from his season on the commentary circuit, and Sam Northeast speaks to Jo Harman-McGowan about his triumphant return to Kent.

We have eye-opening features from Tawhid Qureshi on Bangladesh's recent rise, Christopher Sandford on the plight of Imran Khan and Anjali Doshi on the brutal reality of being a female journalist, while Matthew Hayden is in effusive form as he tells us what's right and wrong about the game today.

Finally, Andrew Miller hails the return of Kevin Pietersen to the England fold, Lawrence Booth gives Ollie Robinson the credit he deserves, and Matt Henry tells us how county cricket transformed him into a world-class bowler.

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"The bowling's massively important to me. It's still not exactly where I want it to be, but I do think it's at a serviceable level. My accuracy's got a lot better. I think it's more just bowling in higher pressure situations, learning how to be a spinner."
Dan Lawrence on the second string to his bow which has nudged him ahead of his England rivals

"If you’re the pace of Ollie Robinson, Sam Cook or Vernon Philander, you have to be at such a high level of skill, with so little margin for error. I don’t think I’m there yet. I would be very surprised if England come calling. Happily surprised, but very surprised."
Ethan Bamber, the bowler of the county summer, on why he doesn't think he'll get picked by England

"It's better to have something than nothing. But surely it should have been a three-match series. Bangladesh is a good Test side now."
Habibul Bashar, former Bangladesh captain turned chief selector, speaks to Tawhid Qureshi about Bangladesh's rise and the one-off Test against England at Lord’s next May

"Imran was always, and remains to this day, a deeply polarising figure. Back in his playing days, people tended to either like him or loathe him, but no one could ignore him. Almost singlehandedly, he changed the way Pakistan cricket was perceived around the world."
Christopher Sandford, who produced the definitive biography of Imran Khan, considers the plight of Pakistan's former captain and prime minister

"I hesitated several times about writing this piece. I didn’t want to be accused of self-indulgence or sensationalism. But, ultimately, what trumped everything was my strong belief that it is imperative to call out unacceptable behaviour."

"The smiling, chirpy Bamber, who last winter thought he’d never swing another cricket ball again. Woakes, the returning conqueror going back to where it all began. Barnard, titan of the shires, passing unrecognised in the street. Each of them, ideals of the English game."
Phil Walker on Warwickshire's Championship win

"I was like, ‘What’s going on with this club since I left?’ Smokey [Hollioake] blurted it out and I got a lot of messages after that. It was quite amusing. But actually, to be fair, a lot of our bowlers have stayed on the park this season…"
Sam Northeast on Kent, who achieved a shock promotion, employing a faith healer to solve their fast-bowling injury crisis

"Remember, this is a club with the biggest wage bill in the country, steeped in history. And while providing opportunities to a raw but talented crop of youngsters is usually exciting, this year it’s bordered on irresponsible."
Dan Senior on Lancashire's dismal season

"Our system in Australia is not promoting the type of cricketer we expect. We seem to have moved away from where our great strengths were. At the moment, we don't seem to have that kind of charisma in our back-of-house."
Matthew Hayden on what's missing in Australian batting

"The performance that broke Somerset hearts. Before Somerset’s visit to Headingley, the 23-year-old averaged 67 with the ball from 10 red-ball matches."
Ben Cliff's eight-for against Somerset makes our top 40 performances of the county season