Ahead of the County Championship season from Good Friday, we take a look at the players looking to earn England Test rights for the series against New Zealand at home from June 4.
batters
A name-check from England national cricket managing director Rob Key is never a bad thing and it was received by Glamorgan’s Asa Tlaib, who was fuming about the Ashes fiasco and upcoming changes during Key’s media rounds last week.
Opening pitchers Ben Duckett and Zak Crowley averaged 27 and 20 RBI, respectively, in the 4-1 loss to Australia, and management has cited “consequences” for poor performance in the future, so there is a good chance there will be vacancies at the top.
Tribe scored an eye-catching goal of the century against the England Lions against Australia A in December.
Jersey’s Tribe could benefit from that in the 2025 season after averaging 203-50 and over 45 shades in 11 innings.
Glamorgan’s promotion to Division One is likely to increase the profile of the Tribe, who celebrated 100 years with the Lions in Australia over the winter.
Surrey’s Dom Sibley and Nottinghamshire’s Haseeb Hameed both racked up runs in the top tier last year, each scoring over 1,200. They were not seen in international cricket during the buzz-ball era, but they may now have hopes of a recall, especially since Hamed’s strike rate of 58.24 in 2025 was higher than Sibley’s 45.90.
Durham’s Ben McKinney and Sussex’s Tom Haynes, who both opened for the Lions this winter, are also candidates. So is McKinney’s Durham teammate Emilio Gay, who hit four tons in the Championship last season.
Emilio Gay scored 400 points in the County Championship for Durham last season.
ticket gate keeper
If the England international moves to replace Jamie Smith, who struggled with the bat in the Ashes away trip and was quite timid behind the stumps after a few errors, Somerset’s James Lew would look the most likely replacement.
He broke the 1,000-run mark in county cricket last year and has long been seen as a player of the future.
But his younger brother, fellow wicketkeeper Thomas, 18, who captained England to the Under-19 World Cup final earlier this year, may have an even higher ceiling.
Thomas Liu, 18, is being watched as a player of the future.
Durham’s Ollie Robinson (not Sussex’s Ollie Robinson, but we’ll get to that later) probably has the best combination of glove work and batting prowess, but he struggled with the blade last season, averaging below 30.
Surrey’s Ben Foakes will always be the pick of wicketkeeper purists – the ball melts into his glove – and he will don the mitts ahead of Smith at the Kia Oval side, while Yorkshire captain Jonny Bairstow will never give up on a recall that looks slim at best.
seamstresses
England’s batting was below average in The Ashes, but so was their bowling at times. There are too many short and wide deliveries that the Australian players are happy with. You probably wouldn’t have gotten that from Essex metronome Sam Cooke.
Sam Cooke played his only Test to date against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May last year
The question for England is whether they feel he is quick and effective enough to feature in international games after he conceded a run against Zimbabwe last summer on a batsman-friendly Trent Bridge delivery and has not been selected since.
Australia’s Michael Nether has shown that pace is not everything, as he impressed against England this winter, so Cook, who has 328 first wickets at an average of 20.64, will likely get another job.
Like Tribe, he has also been name-checked by Key recently, leaving a vacancy at the traditional English seamer after Chris Woakes was led into international retirement.
But perhaps Sussex’s Olly Robinson – we promised to get in touch with him – is the man.
The 32-year-old hasn’t played for England in over two years due to fitness issues and personality conflicts, but you can’t help but think he would have been a force when the tourists were offering hit-me-balls during The Ashes.
Tall, accurate, and capable of nipping the ball in both directions, Robinson took 76 wickets in 20 Tests, averaging just under 23. He can rub people the wrong way, but importantly those people include the opposition batsmen, and that’s what he wants his bowlers to do.
Ollie Robinson took 76 wickets in 20 Tests, averaging 22.92 wickets.
spinner
Well…
England have left out frontline spinner Shoaib Bashir for all of the Ashes and used part-timer Will Jacks for the last four Tests, so the stock is not necessarily inflated.
Bashir joins Derbyshire University from Somerset University, where he was replacing Jack Leach, and is hoping to thrive under head coach Mickey Arthur’s energetic form.
The dependable Leach was the most prolific spinner in County Championship Division One last term, with 52 strikes, and while he may not be able to produce as many magic balls, he will likely provide Bashir with the control that he often lacks.
Northamptonshire spinner Calvin Harrison impresses Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton
Northamptonshire leg-spinner Calvin Harrison took 36 wickets in Division Two, taking his tally to 1250.
Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton is a big fan.
There will also be calls for another leggy in Rehan Ahmed, but with the 21-year-old scoring five red-ball hundreds last season and taking 13 of his 23 wickets in a single match, it could be argued that his batting is far superior to his bowling at the moment.
The spin-bowling all-rounder role is also perhaps Sussex star James Coles’ best route into the Test team.
He scored over 1,000 runs in the 2025 Championship, but is likely to be eclipsed by Jacob Bethel, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes as England’s middle-order batsman.
Watch England’s home summer international summer fixtures live on Sky Sports, starting with the three-Test series against New Zealand from 4 June. Don’t watch Sky? Stream cricket without a contract now.
