Ahead of the start of the 2026 County Championship, four Wisden writers have made their predictions for what the season has in store.
Who will win Division One?
Ben Gardner (Wisden.com managing editor): Nottinghamshire having Ben Duckett for the first block of the season has swayed it for me. They may have lost Mohammad Abbas, but they should have both Fergus O’Neill and Josh Tongue for more of this year than last. I just can’t see where they drop off from a title winning level, and I’m not sure Alec Stewart’s presence alone is enough to rejuvenate an aging Surrey squad.
Yas Rana (Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast host): I expect Surrey to reclaim their crown. A full season of Ollie Pope and the acquisition of Rahul Chahar for the back-half of the season are two game-changers. Nottinghamshire will challenge again but Mohammad Abbas will take some replacing. Josh Tongue also played a prominent role in their 2025 title charge but now he’s a nailed on starting seamer for England, will he be as available this year?
Jo Harman (Wisden Cricket Monthly editor): With Jack Leach out of favour at Test level but still excelling in the shires and the uber-talented Rew brothers not yet part of the senior England set-up, it feels like Somerset's title hopes might just have hit a sweet spot. Their batting unit is deep and packed with match-winners – the mercurial Tom Banton and Tom Kolher-Cadmore can turn a match in a session – and skipper Lewis Gregory is as savyy as they come. The seam attack is a potential weakness. They'll likely need a 50-wicket season from their talisman Craig Overton if they're to finally break their Championship duck.
Katya Witney (Wisden.com staff writer): It's going to be Surrey. Not only will they have more of their unending stream of England players to call on, but they've also secured some reliable overseas signings. The kicker for everyone else, however, will be Rahul Chahar joining them for the back stretch of six matches in September. He took 10 wickets in the only Championship game he played for them last year, which feels ominous. Somerset are in with a shout, and Notts will be their other closest challengers, but it's hard to see anything other than Surrey running away with it.
Who will be relegated?
BG: Sussex could have handled a 12-point deduction last season, but if a player exodus starts during the season, they will slide down. Despite the excitement generated by Ben Kellaway and Asa Tribe, expect newly promoted Glamorgan to join them.
YR: Glamorgan have an exciting young core of homegrown batting talent but I cannot see them securing enough wins to stay up in a very competitive top tier. Leicestershire, the other promoted outfit, have recruited superbly so I think they will be fine. Hampshire were fortunate to avoid the drop in 2025 and after losing out on both their first and second choice overseas targets in Michael Neser and Jayden Seales, could really struggle this time around.
JH: Dull I know, but I'm going for both newly promoted sides, Leicestershire and Glamorgan. The gap between Div 1 and 2 feels wider than ever and their pace attacks look light for the demands of the top tier.
KW: I'm really worried about Hampshire, as someone from that neck of the woods. They survived their first season post-James Vince last year but their batting lacks real heft even with the addition of Jake Lehmann, and Codi Yusuf doesn't have the same presence either a Seales or Neser would have had. Unless Asa Tribe has another tearaway early season, it'll be them and Glamorgan in the drop zone.
Who will be promoted?
BG: Derbyshire signing Abbas should allow them to go one better than third last year. Durham’s relegation was inexplicable at the time, and should only take a season to correct. But then similar was said about Lancashire, who were unable to arrest the negative momentum fast enough in 2025. They’ll be better this year, but not quite good enough to finish in the top two.
YR: On a very simple level, Derbyshire finished third last year and have since signed Abbas. Throw in the signing of Shoaib Bashir and there’s no reason why won’t be in and amongst the promotion battle. Durham, though, start the season as overwhelming favourites for the title. On paper, they should never have been in the relegation fight last year. After a dire 2025, Lancashire should be much more competitive this time around. If their X-factor seamers – Saqib Mahmood, Ajeet Singh Dale and Mitch Stanley – hit the ground running, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
JH: Mickey Arthur has been bullish about Derbyshire's hopes after they narrowly missed out on promotion last year but Durham and Lancashire have comfortably the best sides on paper, with the latter seemingly back on track following the appointment of Steven Croft on a full-time basis.
KW: Lancashire feel like a stronger outfit than last year. They signed Ajeet Singh Dale over the winter, and led by James Anderson their seam attack looks strong. There's more cause for concern over their batting especially with Keaton Jennings starting the summer with a niggle, but it should be enough to carry them through. Durham will likely tear-up in Division Two, it's hard to see them spending more than a year out of the top flight.
Ones to watch:
BG: Even now, after everything Rehan Ahmed has packed into four and a bit years as a professional cricketer, it still feels as if we’re no closer to working out what he is, exactly. The list of career highlights is long and ever-growing: A five-for on Test debut, Player of the Match on World Cup debut, an all-timer season (five hundreds, a batting average of 50, a bowling average of 19) to drive his county’s first-ever Championship promotion. And yet, still only 21 years old, he retains the thrill of the unknown, a player exploring the outer reaches of his own talent, that ebullient smile betraying that he’ll do any job asked of him; he’s just happy to play. You never know quite what Rehan’s going to do in any given game. But you can be pretty sure he’ll do something you’ll remember.
YR: The Rews. It is an objectively fascinating dynamic. James is the youngest English player to 10 first-class hundreds since Compton in the 1930s and currently dons the gloves for Somerset but is potentially behind his younger brother Thomas, who is yet to play a County Championship fixture, in the eyes of the England hierarchy. Thomas was preferred to James in the England Lions XI for the opening tour game against the senior England side in November. How do you accommodate them both? Well, the smart play that could benefit both of their pursuits of higher honours may involve promoting James up to the top of the Somerset order. His compact defence and composed temperament suits an opening berth, and it’s a problem position for both Somerset and England.
JH: Ollie Robinson isn’t a cricketer known for tiptoeing and he used Sussex’s press day at Hove in the final week of March to reaffirm his determination to force his way back into the Test side, while also taking a swipe at those who’ve criticised the England management in the wake of the Ashes defeat. At 32, this could be a make or break season for Robinson’s hopes of an England recall. Newly appointed as Sussex’s red-ball captain having asked for the job directly in his post-season appraisal, he will hope to show the selectors that he has the maturity and fitness – he claims he’s never been fitter – to warrant a role in the ‘reset’.
KW: The early season race for England's Test opening partnership is going to be fascinating. Ben Duckett will be desperate to show his IPL withdrawal was worth it, while there are several hungry batters up and down the country with an opportunity to claim their stake. Emilio Gay is one of them up at Durham who could score a hatful in Division Two, as well as Alex Lees. Tom Haines at Sussex was on the Lions tour this winter and there's potentially another chapter to be told in the Haseeb Hameed story.
Story of the season
BG: I keep peering through my fingers at the fixture pile-up in the calendar towards its end. Two two-day turnarounds between back-to-back-to-back County Championship rounds. Twelve days of playing with just four days’ rest. It could be carnage. The PCA raised the prospect of a player strike, though that talk has quietened. Still, as it comes closer and people realise how mad it is, the rumblings will increase again. How counties manage it could determine their seasons. Can they pick up enough points from those games while also keeping their crumbling players fit for the run-in?
YR: Pitch deterioration. Okay, it’s not going to be the story of the summer, but expect the quiet grumblings about pitch quality towards the back-end of the summer to grow louder this year. There is an increased feeling among the players that the increased quantity of cricket is reaching an unsustainable level not just for themselves, but for the surfaces they play on.
JH: Somerset winning the thing would take some beating but the early-season subplot of the battle to become England's first-choice Test spinner should be fascinating. In an open race, who will be given the opportunity between now and the start of June to bowl enough overs to stake their claim for the New Zealand series? If the weather intervenes, will anybody? And, perhaps most pertinently, are the England selectors even paying attention to what happens on the county circuit?
KW: It's been a spring of discontent for some counties, with former players leading revolts over perceived (and genuine) mismanagement at three separate clubs. More money sometimes brings more problems, even if it solves other ones, and The Hundred money might do a bit of both. Cricket normally quietens down dissenting voices, but losses could heighten those clamours for change at several clubs over the course of the season.
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