Are Durham primed to bounce straight back up? Can Lancashire and Kent put their 2025 woes behind them? Ahead of the start of the Rothesay County Championship, we assess the chances of the eight teams in Division Two. You can read our Division One preview here.

Derbyshire

Last season: 3rd
Head of cricket: Mickey Arthur
Captain: Wayne Madsen
Overseas: Caleb Jewell, Mohammad Abbas
Ins: Matt Montgomery (Nottinghamshire), Shoaib Bashir (Somerset)
Outs: David Lloyd (retired), Alex Thomson (released)
A surefire sign that the County Championship is upon us is the first annual reference to Mickey Arthur’s Derbyshire “project”. Four years ago, Arthur arrived in the Peaks with the goal of rehabilitating one of the circuit’s least-fashionable sides – as he prepares to begin his fifth season in charge, it’s fair to say that plan is still a work in progress.

Last year did provide reasons for encouragement, however. After finishing successively fifth, sixth and ninth in Division Two, Derbyshire finally produced a promotion challenge worthy of the name – their hopes eventually scotched by a washout in mid-September against Glamorgan, who thereby clinched second spot. Derbyshire only won three games but proved hard to beat (drawing a division-high nine), and Arthur will hope that a trio of “statement signings” can get them over the line this summer.

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Most significant is likely to be the arrival of Mohammad Abbas, fresh from helping Nottinghamshire to the title. The wily Pakistan seamer has signed a two-year contract to reunite with Arthur – who gave him his international debut – and brings with him an impeccable record of 291 County Championship wickets at 19.89. Matthew Montgomery, meanwhile, will add further ballast to a strong batting order, led by Australian Caleb Jewell (whose tally of 1802 runs across competitions was more than anyone else in 2025). But it is the arrival of England’s hitherto No. 1 Test spinner that is most intriguing.

One to watch: Shoaib Bashir was an England project for the best part of two years, picked for his height and raw attributes – only to slide out of contention in Australia and play no part in the Ashes. An average of 84.06 in the Championship is eye-watering and Bashir will have to prove himself worthy of the Derbyshire spinner’s berth, with Jack Morley a reliable alternative. Alan Gardner

Bet365: 5/1

Shoaib Bashir bowls in the nets PA Photos/Getty ImagesDurham

Last season: 9th in Division One
Director of cricket: Marcus North
Head coach: Ryan Campbell
Captain: Alex Lees
Overseas: David Bedingham, Kemar Roach (April-June)
Ins: Kasey Aldridge (Somerset), Archie Bailey (Gloucestershire), Shafiqullah Ghafari (UK passport)
Outs: Mitchell Killeen (Essex), Paul Coughlin (Lancashire), Bas de Leede
Durham have had all winter to stew on the final-day collapse that cost them Division One status after just two seasons back in the top flight. Needing to bat out two-and-a-half sessions for a draw against Yorkshire, they plunged to 85 all out inside 45 overs – meaning that Hampshire stayed up instead by a single point. “Today was one of those days that will probably go down in Durham’s folklore of hanging our heads in shame,” Ryan Campbell said at the time. “We’re going to have to rebuild and come back bigger and better next year.”

The squad had not changed a great deal from the one that romped to the Division Two title three seasons ago by a 66-point margin. Campbell was already part of Durham folklore for overseeing that campaign and will hope to produce something similar – though as the experiences of Kent and Lancashire last year demonstrate, bouncing straight back up is not always easy.

Ben Stokes won’t now be available for the start of the season, but Kemar Roach, three times a Championship winner with Surrey, should enhance an attack fronted by Ben Raine and Matt Potts (who combined for 114 wickets in 2023). The batting line-up, with David Bedingham aiming to match previous heights after a disrupted 2025 and including the international and A-team experience of Alex Lees, Ben McKinney, Emilio Gay, Colin Ackermann and Ollie Robinson looks equally good on paper.

One to watch: Teenaged left-armer James Minto has quite a bit on his CV already: a first-class five-for, the youngest man to score fifty for Durham, and an appearance in an Under-19s World Cup final. He spoke movingly in an interview with ESPNcricinfo about coping with the death of his mother, and hopes of “cementing” his position with Durham this summer. AG

Bet365: 11/4

Cameron Bancroft acknowledges his hundred Jacob HurryGloucestershire

Last season: 6th
Director of Cricket: Jon Lewis
Head coach: Mark Alleyne
Captain: Cameron Bancroft
Overseas: Cameron Bancroft, Gabe Bell (April-May), Liam Scott (May-July)
Ins: Craig Miles (Warwickshire), Will Williams (Lancashire)
Outs: Archie Bailey (Durham), Ajeet Singh Dale (Lancashire), Zaman Akhter (Essex), Dom Goodman (Sussex), Tom Price (Sussex), Josh Shaw (Somerset)
Incremental improvement characterised Gloucestershire‘s 2025 season as they went one better than the previous year’s seventh-place finish. But struggles to cover a mass-departure of seam bowlers in the off-season leave them at risk of achieving little more this time around.

Ajeet Singh Dale was their leading wicket-taker with 40 at 30.00 before leaving for Lancashire as one of six seamers making their exit. Two of the four replacements – Australians Gabe Bell and Liam Scott – are only available for a handful of early season fixtures between them.

Cameron Bancroft returns from Australia to captain the side. But arguably Gloucestershire’s biggest recruitment outside of Dawid Malan’s T20-only deal upon arriving from Yorkshire is Jon Lewis in the newly established director of cricket role. Lewis hasn’t been short of work since losing the England Women’s head coach job after last year’s Ashes and will combine duties as London Spirit Women’s head coach with what is no small task at his former county.

Familiar names stood out among the batters last season in James Bracey, Miles Hammond, Ollie Price, who scored an unbeaten 253 in a May draw against Lancashire, and Ben Charlesworth, who is set to depart at the end of 2026. More will be asked of them this time around.

One to watch: You’ll have to be quick, but 25-year-old seam-bowling allrounder Liam Alexander Hamilton Scott could be well worth seeing for cricket and musical fans alike as a player intent on “not throwing away [his] shot”. The Sheffield Shield Player of the Year with 547 runs and 28 wickets at 23.25, he has just claimed back-to-back titles with South Australia. Chiefly signed for the T20 Blast, he will play two Championship games – at Worcestershire and Northamptonshire – in June. Valkerie Baynes

Bet365: 18/1

Sam Northeast’s Kent future is in doubt Getty ImagesKent

Last season: 8th
Director of cricket: Simon Cook
Head coach: Adam Hollioake
Captain: Daniel Bell-Drummond
Overseas: Keith Dudgeon, Glenton Stuurman (Apr-May), Senuran Muthusamy (May-Sept)
Ins: Sam Northeast (Glamorgan), Matt Milnes (Yorkshire)
Outs: Jack Leaning (Sussex), Nathan Gilchrist (Warwickshire), George Garrett (retired), Marcus O’Riordan, Mohammed Rizvi (both released)

The return of former club captain Sam Northeast after four run-laden years at Glamorgan and four seasons before that with Hampshire is hugely welcome for the Division Two wooden spooners. Combined with the re-recruitment of seam bowler Matt Milnes from Yorkshire, where he spent the last three seasons, Kent have potentially offset the departures of Jack Leaning and Nathan Gilchrist.

Meanwhile, they have held onto an experienced core including Ben Compton, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Matt Quinn and Grant Stewart. Joe Denly remains available across formats after signing a contract extension taking him into a 20th season with the club aged 40, although his focus will be the T20 Blast alongside his new batting mentorship role.

Kent have ensured further stability in retaining batter Tawanda Muyeye and allrounder Joey Evison. They have also recruited South African trio Keith Dudgeon, Glenton Stuurman and Senuran Muthusamy. Corey Flintoff, the 20-year-old eldest son of former England allrounder Andrew, stands to take the next step in his career after playing the last two games of the season.

Going winless in all but the first two games of 2025, which ended in a whimper with nothing to play for as Derbyshire thrashed them by an innings and 229 runs, only one direction of travel will be acceptable to Kent fans.

One to watch: Ben Dawkins made his first-class debut and played Kent’s last four matches of 2025 before his 19th birthday, batting all over from opener to No. 6 and scoring two half-centuries. A Kent academy graduate, he most recently represented England Under-19s at their World Cup in February, scoring 66 off 56 in a losing cause in the final. An unbeaten 111 against Northamptonshire in last year’s One Day Cup further enhanced his credentials. VB

Bet365: 14/1

Steven Croft oversees the Lancashire warm-ups Getty ImagesLancashire

Last season: 5th
Director of cricket: Mark Chilton
Head coach: Steven Croft
Captain: James Anderson
Overseas: Marcus Harris
Ins: Paul Coughlin (Durham), Ajeet Singh Dale (Gloucestershire)
Outs: Will Williams (Gloucestershire), Josh Boyden (released)
Lancashire‘s return to Division Two last summer started inauspiciously, with a winless opening block of seven matches prompting a change of coach and captain. Steven Croft and James Anderson took over from Dale Benkenstein and Keaton Jennings respectively, and results in the second half of the season were promising enough for both club stalwarts to be offered their positions on a permanent basis in the off-season. Promotion is the obvious target this year, with the arrival of two seamers – Paul Coughlin and Ajeet Singh Dale – designed to provide some cutting edge.

That will be particularly important at Emirates Old Trafford, where six out of seven first-class matches last summer – including the fourth England vs India Test – ended in a draw. Croft is the youngest head coach in the country but believes that old-school values of hard work and determination can help his squad achieve better results at home. Can Tom Hartley, 30 wickets at 35.53 last summer, develop into a more regular match-winner? And can Croft and Mark Chilton find a late replacement for Mitchell Perry, who has been ruled out of his early-season spell due to injury?

This season will be the club’s first with access to their new ground at Farington near Preston, and the first full year of their partnership with the RPSG Group to run Manchester Super Giants. But off-field matters are rarely straightforward at Lancashire, as evidenced last week when a group of ex-players led by David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd and Paul Allott called a special general meeting, demanding greater cricketing experience on the club’s board.

One to watch: Mitchell Stanley is a regular England Lions tourist but has only played two Championship matches since joining Lancashire in late 2023, his progress checked by injury. But he showed why he is so highly rated by Andrew Flintoff’s set-up in the second of them last season, blowing Kent away with his pace to take 11 wickets in the match. Now, he must string a run of games together. Matt Roller

Bet365: 11/4

Caleb Falconer completed a 63-ball hundred ICC/Getty ImagesMiddlesex

Last season: 4th
Head coach: Peter Fulton
Captain: Leus du Plooy
Overseas:
Ins: Caleb Falconer (academy)
Outs: Stephen Eskinazi (Leicestershire)
Middlesex‘s crisis of relevance is so real that it scarcely requires metaphors to get the point across. And yet the postponement of their pre-season photocall due to issues with the “delivery of the club’s playing kit” was about as on-the-nose as they get. Penniless, and increasingly homeless – with London Spirit’s millions leaving their centuries-old relationship with Lord’s in genuine peril – the board this week faced calls to resign from a core of prominent former players, including Mike Gatting and Mark Ramprakash. After last season’s failed bid for a return to Division One, the route back to relevance looks more distant than ever.

The circumstances for Peter Fulton‘s tenure as head coach could scarcely be less inviting. His appointment, following Richard Johnson’s early-season departure last year and Dane Vilas’ interim role, amount to the club’s only significant off-field change – once again, they have so far foregone an overseas signing. Steve Eskinazi is officially off their books too, having initially gone to Leicestershire on loan last year.

The gripes raised by the club’s ex-players included the suggestion that Middlesex fail to make adequate use of their vast urban playing population. And yet, given their desperate lack of funds, the need to cultivate those grassroots has never been more pressing. In Caleb Falconer, the academy graduate who smashed a 63-ball century in the recent Under-19 World Cup final, they do at least have one jewel to polish. He’s certainly in the right place to get first-team opportunities, as indeed is his fellow U19 finalist Seb Morgan, who was blooded late last season in three Championship outings.

One to watch: Josh De Caires has been many things in his short but eventful time at Middlesex. A dogged opening bat in the mould of his old man, and a resourceful offspinner who managed two seven-wicket hauls in the 2024 Championship. England Lions have taken notice in between whiles, and if this can be the season he discovers his true calling, the county will benefit on all fronts. Andrew Miller

Bet365: 13/2

Calvin Harrison poses for a portait Getty ImagesNorthamptonshire

Last season: 7th
Head coach: Darren Lehmann
Captain: Luke Procter
Overseas: Nathan McSweeney, Harry Conway (April-May), Yuzvendra Chahal (July-Sept)
Ins: Louis Kimber (Leicestershire), Calvin Harrison (Nottinghamshire)
Outs: Freddie Heldreich (released)
Northamptonshire only avoided the wooden spoon in Darren Lehmann’s first season in charge due to the dire form of Kent. That was despite having the most prolific batter in either division of the County Championship in their ranks. Saif Zaib‘s golden summer reaped 1425 runs at 64.77, six hundreds trebling his overall tally in first-class cricket – though it wasn’t enough to prompt an England Lions call (proof of an anti-county or anti-Northants bias in selection? You decide).

Legspinner Calvin Harrison (456 runs, 36 wickets) provided another bright spot while on loan from Nottinghamshire; he has signed permanently, which strengthens Northants’ hand across formats. Lehmann has also dipped into his contacts book to bring in fellow Australian Nathan McSweeney for a season-long stint. McSweeney, who has three Test caps, is due to arrive fresh – or perhaps slightly jetlagged – from captaining South Australia to Sheffield Shield glory over the weekend and will add fibre to a batting line-up that largely failed to support Zaib in 2025.

Harry Conway is also back, after topping the Northants bowling averages in his four-match spell last season. If Glen Chapple, now on the permanent staff, can help get the best out of an attack featuring nous (Ben Sanderson), youth (Raphy Weatherall) and pace (George Scrimshaw), then Northants might be able to shoulder their way past the bigger clubs and into promotion contention again.

One to watch: Northants’ season ended with a home defeat to Leicestershire, their midlands rivals rubbing it in by celebrating with the Division Two trophy – but the game did herald the arrival of Stuart van der Merwe, who became only the third player to score a hundred for Northants on first-class debut. That followed a run-a-ball fifty his first List A outing, and suggests the South Africa-born 21-year-old has a bit about him. AG

Bet365: 10/1

Worcestershire

Last season: 10th in Division One
Head coach: Alan Richardson
Captain: Brett D’Oliveira
Overseas: Beyers Swanepoel
Ins:
Outs: Tom Hinley, Yadvinder Singh (both released)
The Beyers Swanepoel saga took another twist a day out from the start of the season, as CSA charged him with bringing the game into disrepute following his departure in extraordinary circumstances midway through South Africa’s domestic one-day final. Worcestershire had hoped to have him available for the whole season, but might now be experiencing Beyers remorse…

“It’s out of our hands,” was how Ashley Giles, Worcestershire’s CEO, explained the situation at the club’s media day. Although, to be fair, Gilo’s got used to shrugging in resignation and waiting for external forces to blow over. The county’s headquarters at New Road suffered six big floods in the course of a ceaselessly dank winter, although thankfully the first of these hit after their new grass-seed had taken root, meaning they won’t (touch wood) be forced to decamp to Kidderminster while it recovers, as was the case two years ago.

Such existential matters have been washing over the club for several years now, as shown by the steps recently taken in their so-called Project Elgar – the club’s feasibility study into the establishment of a permanent new venue. It provides mitigation too for the travails of 2025 – the season when gravity caught up with their top-flight stint and they tumbled back to Division Two with a solitary win in 14 matches.

Tom Taylor’s four-for helped limit the Nottinghamshire lead Getty Images

And yet, they didn’t go down without a fight. Jake Libby passed 1000 runs in a stellar campaign that featured four centuries and a career-best 228 not out against Hampshire, while Tom Taylor evoked the English yeoman-seamer methods of his county coach Alan Richardson in claiming 58 wickets at 22.87, more than any other bowler. Unfortunately, in between their days of undeniable plenty, there were too many catastrophes to stave off the inevitable.

Still, it wasn’t all gloom by any means – and Worcestershire’s thrilling win over Hampshire in September’s One-Day Cup final was one of the feelgood narratives of the summer. Much as Leicestershire had proved two years earlier, the club’s quest for silverware showed the spirit that still endures within a precariously placed county.

One to watch: Ethan Brookes was Worcestershire’s central figure in that triumph at Trent Bridge, launching four sixes in his vital 57 from 34 balls, after also picking up the important wicket of Ben Mayes in Hampshire’s innings. His two Championship hundreds included a career-best 140 at Edgbaston. At the age of 24, and amid England’s pledge to pay more heed to county performers, he’s precisely the type of character who could get himself noticed. AM

Bet365: 9/2