{"id":634265,"date":"2026-06-12T04:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/634265\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:41:15","slug":"lancashire-liam-livingstone-to-play-first-championship-game-since-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/634265\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancashire: Liam Livingstone to play first Championship game since 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Livingstone is set to play his first County Championship game for five years, after being named in Lancashire’s squad for their game with Kent, starting on Friday (11:00 BST).<\/p>\n

Livingstone’s last involvement was in 2021, but he is set to play in the four-day Division Two match at Stanley Park in Blackpool.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old has been a white-ball-only player in recent years, but he is helping his county through an injury crisis after being asked by captain Sir James Anderson to play.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I’d be playing if everyone was fit, but Jimmy asked and if I was ever going to play for anyone, Jimmy and Crofty (coach Steven Croft) are probably my top two people,” Livingstone told BBC Radio Lancashire.<\/p>\n

Australia white-ball batter Ben McDermott, currently playing for the county in the T20 Blast<\/a>, has also signed a contract to play in the next two Championship games. <\/p>\n

Lancashire are fourth in Division Two after six games, 10 points adrift of the promotion places. <\/p>\n

Livingstone made his first-class debut a decade ago for Lancashire, playing 62 red-ball games for the Red Rose, scoring seven hundreds and 15 half-centuries in those, with a career best of 224.<\/p>\n

He even played one Test for England – the 3-0 series win in Pakistan in late 202 – but that was his last involvement in whites.<\/p>\n

Since then, he has made his name as a white-ball specialist around the world, featuring in all the major T20 franchise leagues and The Hundred.<\/p>\n

Lancashire have struggled in the T20 Blast this season, but Livingstone has been a shining light with scores of 85 not out and 81<\/a> as well as wickets in all four of his games.<\/p>\n

And with Australian all-rounder Chris Green ruled out with a fractured thumb, Livingstone’s powerful batting and off-spin combination makes him a good option to stand in for the Championship matches this week and next.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’m batting as well as I ever have,” he said. “I feel like I’m in good nick.<\/p>\n

“We’ve obviously had a lot of injuries and the club has given me a lot, so it’s nice to give back and try to help out.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s good for me and good for my game. I’ve complained over the last few years about not being able to get in a rhythm and not having time in the middle, having batted lower down the order. <\/p>\n

“So here’s my chance to have some time in the middle.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Livingstone is set to play his first County Championship game for five years, after being named in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-634265","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\/634265","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=634265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}