\t\tWARWICKSHIRE<\/p>\n
Previewed by Brian Halford, ECB Reporters Network, supported by Rothesay<\/p>\n
Captain: Ed Barnard<\/p>\n
Head coach: Ian Westwood<\/p>\n
2025 finish: 5th<\/p>\n
2025 highest run-scorer: Ed Barnard (922)<\/p>\n
2025 highest wicket-taker: Ethan Bamber (43)<\/p>\n
Key winter moves:\u00a0 Warwickshire have acted decisively to strengthen a senior seam-bowling department which has leaned far too heavily on the excellent Olly Hannon-Dalby for too long. Jordan Thompson has arrived from Yorkshire, Nathan Gilchrist from Kent and Keith Barker is back from Hampshire. With Chris Woakes having retired from international cricket, the pace attack has an appealing depth, allowing for rotation to help keep all its members fit.<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re looking forward to seeing: The Edgbaston faithful are looking forward to seeing Chris Woakes back in the Bears fold \u2013 the all-rounder has played just 12 Rothesay County Championship matches in the last nine seasons. Woakes\u2019 appetite for the game remains high and he is hungry to make a big contribution to his beloved county. Seeing Woakes and Barker running in will evoke memories of 2012 glory!<\/p>\n
Aiming to catch Test selectors\u2019 eye: Ed Barnard \u2013 the all-rounder has hugely impressed in all departments since moving across from Worcestershire and more of the same must surely be rewarded with a call-up. He was also appointed captain just before the start of the season.<\/p>\n
Final thought: Warwickshire\u2019s squad enters the 2026 season in better shape than for several years. After all the recent transition, fifth in the Championship in 2025 was a decent effort in Ian Westwood\u2019s first year as head coach. With some stability and experience in the ranks, and the transformed seam attack, his second could bring a serious challenge for honours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARWICKSHIRE Previewed by Brian Halford, ECB Reporters Network, supported by Rothesay Captain: Ed Barnard Head coach: Ian Westwood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-510063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}