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Rothesay County Championship Division One Preview
With the start of the 2025 cricket season now just days away, we thought we’d take a look at the teams who we will be coming up against in the Rothesay County Championship this year.
DURHAM
Captain: Alex Lees
Head Coach: Ryan Campbell
2024 finish: Fifth (Division One)
2024 highest run-scorer: David Bedingham (1,331)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Matthew Potts (33)
Key winter moves: Experienced Australia A seamer Brendan Doggett has signed an overseas deal for the first two months of the season, supplementing prolific South African batter David Bedingham, who is available all summer aside from any Test Match commitments. Scotland batter Michael Jones has moved to birth-county Lancashire, but three domestic recruits have arrived in the North East; opening batter Emilio Gay, all-rounder Will Rhodes and fast bowler Sam Conners.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: After winning Division Two in 2023, Durham consolidated their top-flight position last season by finishing mid-table courtesy of four wins and five draws. Can they kick on now and give champions Surrey something to think about? England Test captain Ben Stokes, currently sidelined following hamstring surgery, could return to county colours during the early stages of the summer as he builds up to blockbuster series against India and Australia this year.
Final thought: It will be fascinating to chart the progress of three highly-rated homegrown youngsters as they tackle a summer in which Alex Lees will captain Durham’s Championship team alongside their white-ball sides. Opening batter Ben McKinney scored an England Lions century against Australia A this winter and is targeting a breakthrough campaign, while fast bowlers Daniel Hogg and James Minto can further progress after brief – and exciting – exposure in last summer’s Rothesay County Championship.
ESSEX
Captain: Tom Westley
Director of Cricket: Chris Silverwood
2024 finish: Fourth
2024 highest run-scorer: Dean Elgar (1,144)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Jamie Porter (56)
Key winter moves: Essex plans were thrown into disarray when Indian Shardul Thaker pulled out of his intended seven-match arrangement at late notice when called up as an IPL replacement. Unless Essex can unearth another available overseas bowler to ease the burden on the pace attack, returning director of cricket Chris Silverwood will have to revive his Midas touch of yore and bring out the best from the existing squad.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: By his own extraordinary standards, Simon Harmer had a distinctly below-par campaign in 2024. For the first time in eight seasons at Chelmsford he failed to add to his tally of 35 five-fers and ten 10-wicket hauls achieved in Essex colours. He still took 45 Championship wickets with his off-spin, but at an uncharacteristically high cost and strike-rate. We’re looking forward to seeing a revitalised Harmy.
Player to watch: Jordan Cox’s summer was dogged by injury, yet he still topped the Essex averages with 918 runs at 65.57. It earned him a call to arms from England and he was all set to make his Test debut in New Zealand in the autumn before suffering another setback. Another flying start this time around would keep him firmly on the selectors’ radar – and bolster Essex’s middle-order.
Final thought: It may be seven-and-a-half years since Silverwood left Essex for England, but there could be as many as half-a-dozen familiar names in the first XI he selects on April 4. Promising opener Charlie Allison was 12 back in 2017, but such has been his rapid rise that his should be a name on Silverwood’s team sheet for the next decade and more.
HAMPSHIRE
Captain: Ben Brown
Head Coach: Adi Birrell
2024 finish: Second
2024 highest run-scorer: James Vince (986)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Liam Dawson (54)
Key winter moves: The winter has been tumultuous with James Vince moving to Dubai – after attacks on his family house last summer – while Mo Abbas hasn’t been retained as overseas. That is over 1,000 runs and 36 wickets from last season alone to recover. Experienced top-order batter Mark Stoneman has been added to somewhat fill the Vince void, while a battery of fast bowlers will replace Abbas. Sonny Baker, who has arrived from Somerset, is one of them.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: The fastest of fast bowling attacks. Abbas’ exit frees up space for some of the quickest young talent on the circuit. Baker, John Turner, Scott Currie, Brad Wheal and Eddie Jack can all bowl in the vicinity of 90mph. Kyle Abbott will once again lead the attack, with the experienced heads of Keith Barker and James Fuller helping to oversee the crop of wunderkinder.
Player to watch: Tom Prest will soften the blow of Vince’s migration. He ticks the batting aesthetic, quick-scoring and slip fielding boxes, and most importantly the run scoring. Prest is quite simply a Vince clone with 24 rather than 14 on his back. Three centuries last year at an average of just over 48 suggest he could not only get out of Vince’s shadow in 2025, but eclipse it.
Final thought: Hampshire have finished in the top three in each of the past three seasons, with 2024’s second-place finish their highest since 2005. One further step shouldn’t be that big, and yet without Vince it feels massive. Ben Brown is now captain, with the likes of Nick Gubbins and the increasingly impressive Liam Dawson crucial in filling the leadership and batting vacuum. Indian-based GMR Group took over Hampshire over the winter – making them the first overseas-owned county – although little is expected to change off the field in 2025.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Captain: Haseeb Hameed
Head Coach: Peter Moores
2024 finish: Eighth
2024 highest run-scorer: Haseeb Hameed (1,091)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Dillon Pennington (31)
Key winter moves: South African seamer Dane Paterson’s move to Middlesex after 180 wickets in four seasons at Trent Bridge came as a surprise, although international cricket may now limit his availability. Australia’s 24-year-old pacy all-rounder Fergus O’Neill (four matches in April) and Pakistan quick Mohammad Abbas (six rounds, in May and September) arrive as overseas bowlers. Conor McKerr from Surrey further boosts the seam stock. South African wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne can offer significant middle-order runs.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Remember Josh Tongue? Some 20 months after his move from Worcestershire to Trent Bridge was announced, the 27-year-old pace bowler is at last ready to make his Nottinghamshire debut after a torrid time with injuries that has restricted him to just 12 first-class matches since June 2021. As a contracted England player, his workload will be controlled but at least three appearances in the first block of Rothesay County Championship fixtures is on the cards.
Player to watch: After he burst on the scene with 22 wickets in four matches at the end of last season, Nottinghamshire accept it will be hard to keep record-breaking 17-year-old off-spinner Farhan Ahmed out of their line-up irrespective of the need to manage his physical development. Even with talented leggie Calvin Harrison and quality left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White offering competition, Farhan is in pole position to be the side’s No 1 choice as specialist slow bowler.
Final thought: After looking more like relegation candidates than title prospects since returning to Division One two seasons ago, Nottinghamshire are sensibly not setting their ambitions higher than finishing in the top half of the table in 2025. Although they have a decent hand of bowlers, more is needed from the batters, particularly the middle order, and particularly in the first innings, where they have fallen notably short.
SURREY
Captain: Rory Burns
Head Coach: Gareth Batty
2024 finish: Champions
2024 highest run-scorer: Rory Burns (1,073)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Dan Worrall (52)
Key winter moves: The arrival from Yorkshire of Matt Fisher is expected to strengthen still further Surrey’s all-powerful fast-bowling stocks. Fisher, at 27, sees the move as a chance to push on an already promising career and reach new levels in both county and international cricket. From the start of May, too, the champions’ enviable pace battery will be boosted by Nathan Smith, who joins as Surrey’s latest overseas signing and who is available, outside any New Zealand commitments, for the rest of the summer.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Can anyone stop Surrey, champions for the last three seasons, completing a fourth consecutive title triumph? And will newly-qualified pace ace Dan Worrall, the spearhead of the glorious ‘three-peat’ with 139 wickets at 21.17 since joining Surrey for the start of the 2022 season, continue his remarkable late-career Surrey surge by winning an England Test call at 33?
Player to watch: Although many eyes will be on Fisher, who won his only England Test cap of an injury-studded career to date in March 2022, expect exciting 22-year-old Tom Lawes to kick on this season. Lawes, who can also bat in the lower middle order, already has 74 first-class wickets at 24.36 but – swinging the ball both ways at sharp pace – he can get much better yet.
Final thought: As ever, Surrey will have to juggle their considerable resources cleverly given the many calls from England red-ball and white-ball squads, plus the Indian Premier League during the county season’s early stages. The spine of the championship team, however, looks as reassuringly solid as before: skipper Burns and Dom Sibley at the top of the order, Ben Foakes to keep wicket peerlessly and add consistent runs to a strong and deep batting line-up, while Jordan Clark (116 wickets in the last three years) helps Worrall (and Lawes) lead the attack.
SUSSEX
Captain: John Simpson
Head Coach: Paul Fabrace
2024 finish: Champions (Division Two)
2024 highest run-scorer: John Simpson (1197)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Jack Carson (50)
Key winter moves: Ex-Somerset top-order batter George Thomas spent part of the winter working for a power-tool company in Melbourne. Farbrace regards him as a player with unfulfilled potential. After trials in January, another 21-year-old signed in slow left-armer Troy Henry whose wages for the first year of his contract will be paid by the ACE programme. Medium-fast bowler Nantes Oosthuizen, nurtured at Seaford College by former skipper Chris Adams, joined on a rookie contract.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Once again Paul Farbrace has recruited a group of solid, proven overseas players with Dan Hughes, Jayden Seales, Nathan McAndrew and Jaydev Unadkat all returning for a second – and in Unadkat’s case third – season while Australian seamer Gurinder Sandhu arrives during June and July. Their contributions will be pivotal to hopes of staying up and having another good run in the Blast, where they were semi-finalists last year.
Player to watch: Opener Tom Haines, who signed a new three-year deal in the winter, averages 37.60 and has made 4,588 first-class runs but none of them against Division One attacks. If he can flourish against better bowlers – and there’s never been any doubt about his technique or temperament – then it will help Sussex’s chances of establishing themselves in Division One a lot and perhaps enhance his claims for a Test place as well.
Final thought: Sussex return to Division One after a ten-year absence and Paul Farbrace has targeted a top-four finish. He’ll have a better idea of whether that’s achievable after the first month when Sussex face Warwickshire, Surrey, Somerset and Nottinghamshire – all established top-flight counties. There shouldn’t be many concerns about their bowling attack, but can Sussex score enough runs? Contributions from skipper John Simpson and a strong middle order may be crucial again.
WARWICKSHIRE
Captain: Alex Davies
Head Coach: Ian Westwood
2024 finish: Seventh
2024 highest run-scorer: Alex Davies (1,115)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Olly Hannon-Dalby (50)
Key winter moves: The era of transition continues at Edgbaston with a new head coach, Ian Westwood replacing Mark Robinson, and performance director, James Thomas replacing Gavin Larsen. Two key players have departed (Will Rhodes to Durham and Michael Burgess to retirement). In has come Ethan Bamber from Middlesex while the squad will be patched up with four overseas players: Tom Latham (all season), Vishwa Fernando (April), Beau Webster (May-July) and Hasan Ali (May-September).
What we’re looking forward to seeing: New Zealand batter Tom Latham arrives for his first sustained crack at county cricket, having previously paid fleeting visits to Durham, Kent and Surrey. Two of their linchpin runscorers having chosen to leave during the winter, Warwickshire will look to the 32-year-old for match-shaping runs. Latham will be aiming to harvest more happy memories of Edgbaston where he scored the winning runs in New Zealand’s eight-wicket Test victory in 2021.
Player to watch: Ed Barnard’s first two seasons at Edgbaston have not been successful ones for the team but the former Worcestershire player has quietly, impressively enhanced his own reputation as an all-rounder potentially capable of pushing himself into England contention. Productive and, at times, imperious with the bat, he was also a key member of the seam attack in 2024, finishing second top wicket-taker behind the excellent Olly Hannon-Dalby.
Final thought: Warwickshire’s supporters are becoming impatient after several seasons of drift, particularly in red-ball cricket. Ian Westwood, having completed the path from Under 10s player to head coach, must get some stability and consistency into the team. Warwickshire’s 1972 County Championship triumph was followed by a miserable decade. A strong season is needed to assure their supporters that their 2021 triumph will not be followed by a similarly thin era.
WORCESTERSHIRE
Captain: Brett D’Oliveira
Head Coach: Alan Richardson
2024 finish: Sixth
2024 highest run-scorer: Kashif Ali (767)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Tom Taylor, Joe Leach, Nathan Smith (all 27 wickets)
Key winter moves: All-rounder, Ben Allison, and spinner, Fateh Singh, have signed three-year deals after moving from Essex and Nottinghamshire respectively following successful loan spells at Visit Worcestershire New Road. Pace bowler, Jacob Duffy, is the latest in a lengthy line of New Zealanders to enjoy a spell with Worcestershire. He is available for Rothesay County Championship and Vitality Blast cricket throughout the first half of the summer until the end of June.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Worcestershire were the bookies favourites last summer to make an instant return to Division Two but achieved their highest finish since the competition was split into two divisions in 2000. They aimed from pre-season for a top six spot rather than just survive and the positive attitude and never-say-die spirit demanded by club captain Brett D’Oliveira, despite several key injuries, will again be at the fore in 2025 and there is more depth to the squad to give genuine hope of securing a third successive year in the top flight.
Player to watch: Although he has spent several winters playing franchise cricket plus The Hundred, Adam Hose is determined to make his mark in the red-ball format. One the reasons he moved from Warwickshire was to have more Championship opportunities and Hose has played 25 of 28 four-day games and, although lacking consistency, has made several vital contributions including in the 2024 memorable away wins over Durhan and Essex.
Final thought: Worcestershire know they will have to again perform well to have a realistic chance of maintaining Division One status with newly-promoted Yorkshire and Sussex both looking strong. But, despite go-to pace bowler Joe Leach retiring, there is genuine belief they will not be whipping boys especially if they avoid what was at times a shockingly lengthy injury list in 2024, particularly in the bowling department. The likes of Jake Libby, Gareth Roderick and Kashif Ali are capable of providing ample runs at the top of the order but they also have a posse of all-rounders like Matthew Waite, Tom Taylor and Ben Allison which mean they bat very deep.
YORKSHIRE
Captain: Jonny Bairstow
Head Coach: Anthony McGrath
2024 finish: Second (Division Two)
2024 highest run-scorer: Adam Lyth (1,215)
2024 highest wicket-taker: Ben Coad (56)
Key winter moves: Head coach Anthony McGrath has returned home following nine successful seasons as Essex’s assistant coach, head coach and director of cricket, while ex-international all-rounder Gavin Hamilton has filled the newly-created general manager of cricket post. Seamer Jack White has signed from Northamptonshire, helping replace Surrey-bound Matthew Fisher. New Zealand quick Ben Sears and Australians Jordan Buckingham (seamer) and Will Sutherland (all-rounder) will fulfil overseas duties during the first half of 2025.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Promoted Yorkshire’s star-studded batting line-up during the early stages of the season. If things work out as they hope, you could see a top order including Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Joe Root and Dawid Malan at some point during the first block of matches in April and May. That really is a mouthwatering prospect for Yorkshire’s supporters, but perhaps not so much for Division One bowlers.
Final thought: A new era at Headingley sees the county under new leadership both on and off the field. Jonny Bairstow’s appointment as their new red-ball captain indicates his availability across the entire campaign – a huge boost for a county who finished second behind Division Two champions Sussex last season courtesy of five wins in their last seven games. Yorkshire are hopeful they can follow up promotion by winning county cricket’s main prize.
