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English Domestic Season 2026

Third_Man

State Vice-Captain
Surrey playing an inter-squad warm up match at the Oval.


They must be the only county to be able to do this by playing contracted players only, no trialists and no overseas and no Curran brothers, Jacks, Overton, Atkinson, Steel, Worrell:

RJ Burns*, RB Albert, DP Sibley, RS Patel, BT Foakes†, DW Lawrence, TE Lawes, MD Fisher, JPA Taylor, J Clark, JL Smith, RJW Topley, NA Barnwell, JW Blake, TM Ealham, AM French, NV Gorantla, Y Majid, OJD Pope, SH Stuart-Reckling, ARG Thomas (21)

Half decent first team from what is left. Minimum 30 in their squad.
 

ImpatientLime

International Vice-Captain
Surrey playing an inter-squad warm up match at the Oval.


They must be the only county to be able to do this by playing contracted players only, no trialists and no overseas and no Curran brothers, Jacks, Overton, Atkinson, Steel, Worrell:

RJ Burns*, RB Albert, DP Sibley, RS Patel, BT Foakes†, DW Lawrence, TE Lawes, MD Fisher, JPA Taylor, J Clark, JL Smith, RJW Topley, NA Barnwell, JW Blake, TM Ealham, AM French, NV Gorantla, Y Majid, OJD Pope, SH Stuart-Reckling, ARG Thomas (21)

Half decent first team from what is left. Minimum 30 in their squad.
the lesser spotted reece topley. hasn't played red ball cricket since 2022.
 

Hungry Llama

State Regular
Theres every chance that barring injuries, a lot of FEBs, Burns, Sibley, Lawrence & Pope + Foakes will be available for Surrey all season. That cant have happened for a while. Dunno about the status of Smith with England, but he had a terrible time on the tour.
 

chris.hinton

International Captain
Interested to hear your take on the why.

As a Durham supporter I think you’re about right with the placing. I worry we’ll struggle to gain promotion despite a lot of pundits thinking we’ll go straight back up. Too many questions exist about our bowling, which was - Raine aside - decidedly awful last year. Durham have a lot to prove in showing they can consistently take 20 wickets. If you can’t do that, as we couldn’t last year, you can’t be a success.

My other concern is that the opponents we’ll encounter in Division Two are much improved from the last time we were there.

I like the signing of Roach and I’m hopeful Minto can begin to mature as a cricketer. If Durham can get the gift of Ben Stokes for a few games then who knows.
I think they are rather flaky and don't have any steel. I could be wrong, I'm often wrong but i think it will be a quiet season for Durham
 

chris.hinton

International Captain
Theres every chance that barring injuries, a lot of FEBs, Burns, Sibley, Lawrence & Pope + Foakes will be available for Surrey all season. That cant have happened for a while. Dunno about the status of Smith with England, but he had a terrible time on the tour.
Having those type of players reguarly is one of the reasons why i think they will storm to the title again
 

LangleyburyCCPlayer

International Debutant
Yes I think there’s a lot to like with the Surrey/Derbsyhire top spot double, I fancy Essex to register a more serious threat to that top spot this season, they‘ve added some much needed bowling depth, Sam Cook I expect will be back to his best and the batting is packed with runs. Wiaan Mulder should be a really good addition in both disciplines.

I think it’ll be tough for Notts to go back-to-back with Tongue likely to miss more cricket with England this year but they’ll still be a strong proposition.
On the flip side, they’ll have Duckett available for the early season which is an unexpected bonus
 

LangleyburyCCPlayer

International Debutant
If Tribe has jumped to the top of the queue for Crawley replacements (wishful thinking), it would be good for Durham as Gay/McKinney can just focus on scoring runs for Durham. Add Lees, Bedingham and Ackermann and that's a solid top order. Robinson is a very good WK. Aldridge should be a decent signing (talked up as a potential England cricketer). Lot of pressure on Potts and an ageing Roach for wickets though.
How much stock will the management put in the division that each player is in? Tribe will be in Div 1 this year, McKinney in Div 2, McKinney did open for the Lions in Australia whereas Tribe was in the middle order, although Tribe of course hit that ton and McKinney was mediocre. How is Gay after the injury that kept him out of the Italy team for the T20 World Cup?
 

brandon

U19 Vice-Captain
How much stock will the management put in the division that each player is in? Tribe will be in Div 1 this year, McKinney in Div 2, McKinney did open for the Lions in Australia whereas Tribe was in the middle order, although Tribe of course hit that ton and McKinney was mediocre. How is Gay after the injury that kept him out of the Italy team for the T20 World Cup?
I don’t think McKinney is particularly close to breaking into the side, he needs to score bagfuls of runs consistently and he hasn’t done anything of any real note in my view but then I’m old fashioned.

As for Gay, he played in Durham’s recent friendly at Hove, so I would assume he’s back to full fitness.
 

Hungry Llama

State Regular
I didnt realise that yobbo robbo was captain of Sussex. Thought Simpson basically held the batting together the last 2 years, averages 67 for them since he came to Sussex.
 

LangleyburyCCPlayer

International Debutant
I don’t think McKinney is particularly close to breaking into the side, he needs to score bagfuls of runs consistently and he hasn’t done anything of any real note in my view but then I’m old fashioned.

As for Gay, he played in Durham’s recent friendly at Hove, so I would assume he’s back to full fitness.
He was supposedly close to selection for the Zimbabwe Test having had a successful tour of Australia with the Lions and hitting a ton early in the season, although I don’t know how much truth there was in that considering they didn’t pick him in the end, and he did go on to have a mediocre season
 

Third_Man

State Vice-Captain

WICFan

State Regular
Not sure why these deals get done for the players home governing body to then step in and say we need to monitor workloads! Seems a waste of everyone’s time.
Does sound a bit odd, Sri Lanka are due to tour the Caribbean in June but all parties should've worked this out beforehand.
 

brandon

U19 Vice-Captain
He was supposedly close to selection for the Zimbabwe Test having had a successful tour of Australia with the Lions and hitting a ton early in the season, although I don’t know how much truth there was in that considering they didn’t pick him in the end, and he did go on to have a mediocre season
It would’ve been an incredibly BazBall decision for sure, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near being ready for that just yet.
 

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