Warwickshire 2026 County Championship Full Season Preview
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
by Ronan Alexander & The Cricket Draft
With the cricket season fast approaching, now is the time to ensure you and your club are covered! Don’t risk the season with under insurance & outdated valuations; contact ASI, the specialist sports broker and PCA partner, to get your club or your own policy sorted before the first ball is bowled.
County Championship Values for 2026
Banker, Wildcard, Young Gun & England Watch
Banker: Ed Barnard (ALR) £7.9m
A popular choice in over a quarter of squads due to his high match involvement, Barnard will again be a banker pick for 2026. He bowls a high volume of overs and bats within the top six, providing excellent opportunities for points and making him an ideal captaincy choice. He was Warwickshire’s leading point scorer in The Cricket Draft during 2025, contributing 922 runs and 29 wickets across the red-ball season.
Wildcard: Nathan Gilchrist (BWL) £6.5m
After injuries halted his progress and limited his appearances over the last couple of years, Gilchrist is set for a fresh start at Warwickshire this summer. He showed he can get back to his best form after taking an impressive 33 wickets in nine appearances in 2025; a full winter at his new club should stand him in good stead to return fresh.
Young Gun: Kai Smith (WKT) £4.9m
Smith made his debut at the beginning of last season and made a position in the team his own after some impressive performances. The 21-year-old, who can also take the gloves, featured 10 times in his debut season, scoring 375 runs with a top score of 79. He will be looking to get that maiden red-ball hundred under his belt this year and cement his regular spot in the side.
England Watch: Dan Mousley (ALR) £6.5m
The 24-year-old all-rounder has already made seven appearances for England in white-ball cricket and will be striving for more over the summer. He featured in the ILT20 over the winter, furthering his white-ball credentials with dynamic hitting and tricky spin bowling, but he also offers a lot in the red-ball game. He made nine appearances in 2025, scoring 403 runs and picking up two wickets. His first-class batting average of 28.69 is something he’ll be looking to increase over the course of the year.
Potential Starting XI for GW 1.
Potential Starting XI for GW 1
2025 Review
After a couple of disappointing years, Warwickshire showed a lot more solidity in 2025 and secured a respectable mid-table finish. They were hard to beat, drawing nine of their 14 games, the joint-most in Division One, while winning three and losing only twice. It was a very tightly packed mid-table, with only four points separating fourth and seventh; they will be hoping their winter recruitment can bridge that gap and get them competing at the right end of the table again.
They’ll be looking for a player to break the 1,000-run barrier this time around after Ed Barnard came closest last term with 922, while Sam Hain added 734 and Rob Yates was the next highest with 674. Ethan Bamber led the way with the ball, taking 43 scalps, while Michael Booth is one to watch after grabbing 24 in just seven appearances. Warwickshire also remains a club that prides itself on giving youth a chance, recently blooding the likes of Jacob Bethell, Dan Mousley, Tazeem Ali, Kai Smith, and Hamza Shaikh. That is a highly talented young crop of players!
2025 Stat Attack
Ed Barnard: Secured the 8th most points in the 2025 season, accumulating a total of 2,205.
Beau Webster: Ranked 7th for most points per game among all-rounders during his six-match stint — a performance that earned him a return to Edgbaston for the 2026 season.
Kai Smith: Achieved the highest point total (884) for any wicketkeeper valued under £5.5m.
Ethan Bamber: Finished as the ninth-highest wicket-taker in the league with 43 wickets.
Michael Booth: Recorded the second-most wickets (24) for players in the budget category of £5.0m or less.
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Player Ins & Outs
Warwickshire have looked to bolster their ranks over the winter with three new signings. Nathan Gilchrist, who featured on loan from Kent last summer, makes his move permanent. There’s also a return for fan favourite Keith Barker, while fellow bowling all-rounder Jordan Thompson arrives from Yorkshire. This gives them three new seam-bowling options, with Barker and Thompson also offering useful lower-order batting.
Danny Briggs, who was on a white-ball contract, is the only departure as he returns to Sussex. Beau Webster, who played for the county in 2025, also comes back after impressing and making himself a fixture in the Australian squad recently. Last season, Warwickshire’s other overseas slot was used by either a batter or a spinner. Tom Latham, Will Young, and Corey Rocchiccioli occupied the spot, so the club may go down a similar route by signing players on a short-term basis for different stints throughout the campaign.
2026 Fixtures
Warwickshire have a challenging start to the season, with Surrey up first at Edgbaston. Next they travel to Sussex before welcoming Essex to Birmingham and then a trip Nottinghamshire on GW4. If they can get off to a strong start with those fixtures, they will have a great platform for 2026. They have a week off on GW5 before back to back home games against Yorkshire and Glamorgan. Two away matches follow, again facing Yorkshire before travelling to Somerset. August contains two games at Edgbaston, this time Sussex and Notts are the visitors. The season concluded with three of their last four games being away from home. These are against Hampshire, Glamorgan and Essex before taking on Leicestershire at home on the final week of the campaign.
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