The 2025 season of county cricket features several renowned India and Pakistan players. Here’s the full list.
Gaikwad and Shafique to play together
Essex earlier signed India all-rounder Shardul Thakur for seven County Championship matches, but he withdrew after signing a last-minute injury replacement deal for the Lucknow Super Giants. Yuzvendra Chahal is another India player set to light up county cricket this year. The discarded India leg-spinner will return on a contract running from June until the end of the 2025 season.
Yorkshire have signed Chennai Super Kings captain and India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad for the rest of the County Championship and the entirety of the One-Day Cup. He is set to play alongside Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique, who is currently out of favour with the national team.
Gaikwad’s first Yorkshire match will be at Scarborough on 22 July. He’ll also feature in the Metro Bank One Day Cup pic.twitter.com/dmYwYqN41e
— Rothesay County Championship (@CountyChamp) June 10, 2025
In another development, Warwickshire are sweating over the availability of Pakistan quick Hassan Ali, who was due to play for them from May 29 to the end of the season across all formats. Having got a central contract from the PCB, he will be unavailable until the T20 Blast match against Derbyshire on June 8.
The latest high-profile signing was wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who was part of India the A squad during their England Lions tour. He will join Division One table-toppers Nottinghamshire.
Full list of India and Pakistan players in 2025 county cricket
India
Shardul Thakur (Essex, seven matches)*, Ruturaj Gaikwad (Yorkshire), Tilak Varma (Hampshire, four CC matches), Ishan Kishan (two CC matches), Yuzvendra Chahal (Northamptonshire, CC and One-Day Cup)
Pakistan
Abdullah Shafique (Yorkshire, two CC, four T20 Blast matches), Shan Masood (Leicestershire), Mohammad Abbas (Pakistan, six matches), Hassan Ali (Warwickshire)
*withdrawn
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