County Championship 2025, round 1 live blog: Live score, match updates and team news

Sixty minutes in, we've had 13 wickets fall, but Essex and Worcestershire are still holding out. Worcs, tipped by many for relegation, are going particularly well against title-chasing Somerset, racing to 70-0... and as I type, they lose their first, Jack Leach having Jake Libby caught by Lewis Gregory.

The first point of the season goes to Warwickshire, who have Sussex 44-3 thanks to Ethan Bamber's two wickets in two balls.

The Bears 1-0 everyone else.

For a recap of how the County Championship scoring system works, head here.

Henry Bell on the Patreon: "I’m going to jinx him I know but is Alex Lees in the conversation for a Ashes surge?

Could see him starting in Sydney"

Ah Alex Lees. His transformation from blocker to gunslinger was a quiet highlight of those early Bazball days, and he basically matched Crawley's numbers that first summer. With England already needing to fit eight into seven thanks to Bethell's emergence and Smith's return, he's got a few to get past, but he's 18 off 25 even as Durham are 24-2, so he's started well.

That wicketless countrywide first over was something of a false alarm. Seven of the nine first half-hours have now seen a wicket fall. Essex and Worcestershire are the two counties to remain unscathed thus far.

England's Zak Crawley is the second victim of the County Championship season! (I'm not planning to keep track of every victim sequentially.)

His off and middle stumps have been flattened by Northants' Liam Guthrie, Creepy aiming a booming drive and leaving a gap between bat and pad.

Glamorgan's Zain-ul-Hassan, come on down! He's not made it through the second over, the Pakistan-born batter is caught Peter Handscomb (born Victoria, Australia), bowled Ian Holland (born Wisconsin, USA). A truly global dismissal to kick of this most English of competitions.

We wait with bated breath to find out who will be the dreaded First Victim of the Season. Everyone's made it through the first over unscathed...

"Anyone else accepted the fact they're probably not getting much work done today?" says John C over on Wisden's Patreon.

Speak for yourself, I've got 16 counties to keep track of and a liveblog to figure out, if you can call that work.

Speaking of the Patreon, get involved. Membership starts from £5 a month, you get an extra free weekly podcast as well as shows after each England game/day of play, and the community is full of knowledgeable cricketheads discussing the game. Sign up here!

Look, I'm not going to bring you 16 XIs. That's 176 names. Too many.

But some tidbits: Sonny Baker, whose boundless enthusiasm and 90mph-plus pace impressed on the England Lions tour of Australia, is making his Hampshire and County Championship debut having moved from Somerset.

There's no Dan Worrall in Surrey's XI - we'll endeavour to find out what's gone on there - but England's Matt Fisher is making his debut after a switch from Yorkshire. There's also no Dean Elgar for Essex, he's on paternity leave.

Notts' attack looks exciting, with Josh Tongue making a club debut and 17-year-old Farhan Ahmed (brother of Rehan) in as the sole spinner.

In Division One, Essex are batting against Surrey, Yorkshire are batting against Hampshire, Somerset are bowling against Worcs, Warwickshire are bowling against Sussex, and Notts are bowling against Durham.

In Division Two, Derbyshire are bowling against Gloucestershire, Lancs are bowling against Middlesex, Leicestershire are bowling against Gloucestershire, and Northants are bowling against Kent.

So despite the sunny skies, all but two counties have decided it's a bowling day.

Some news first up. Olly Stone has been ruled out until the start of August. A sore knee on Nott's pre-season tour has required surgery and he'll be out for a stretch. More here.

Ben Gardner here, clocking on for day one of the 2025 County Championship season. There's not a drop of rain forecast across the county and the sun is beating down here at Lord's where Middlesex are taking on Lancashire in a potential promotion 48-pointer, even this early in the season. Jimmy's ruled out, but I'm here.

Glamorgan: Sam Northeast (c), Kiran Carlson, Billy Root, Ben Kellaway, Andy Gorvin, Ned Leonard, Zain Ul Hassan, Shoaib Bashir, Colin Ingram, Chris Cooke, Timm van der Gugten, Asitha Fernando, Eddie Byrom.   

Leicestershire: Peter Handscomb (c), Rehan Ahmed, Sol Budinger, Ben Cox, Ben Green, Lewis Hill, Ian Holland, Louis Kimber, Ben Mike, Rishi Patel, Tom Scriven, Liam Trevaskis, Chris Wright.

Middlesex: Toby Roland-Jones (c), Henry Brookes, Noah Cornwell, Blake Cullen, Jack Davies, Leus du Plooy, Stephen Eskinazi, Nathan Fernandes, Ben Geddes, Zafar Gohar, Ryan Higgins, Max Holden, Sam Robson. 

Lancashire: Keaton Jennings (c), Tom Aspinwall, Tom Bailey, George Balderson, Charlie Barnard, George Bell, Jack Blatherwick, Josh Bohannon, Marcus Harris, Matty Hurst, Michael Jones, Ollie Sutton, Luke Wells, Will Williams.

Derbyshire: Wayne Madsen (c), Martin Andersson, Pat Brown, Harry Came, Zak Chappell, Anuj Dal, Aneurin Donald, Brooke Guest, Caleb Jewell, David Lloyd, Jack Morley, Nick Potts, Luis Reece.

Gloucestershire: James Bracey (c), Josh Shaw, Graeme van Buuren, Chris Dent, Zaman Akhter, Joe Phillips, Matt Taylor, Ajeet SIngh Dale, Tom Price, Ed Middleton, Ben Charlesworth, Ollie Price, Miles Hammond, Marchant de Lange.

Northamptonshire: Luke Proctor (c), George Bartlett, Justin Broad, Liam Guthrie, Rob Keogh, Dom Leech, Tiaan Louw, Lewis McManus, James Sales, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Raphy Weatherall, Saif Zaib.

Kent: Daniel Bell-Drummond (c), Ben Compton, Zak Crawley, Jaydn Denly, Keith Dudgeon, Joey Evison, Harry Finch, Nathan Gilchrist, Jack Leaning, Tawanda Muyeye, Matt Parkinson, Jas Singh, Grant Stewart.   

Nottinghamshire: Haseeb Hameed (c), Farhan Ahmed, Joe Clarke, Jack Haynes, Brett Hutton, Lyndon James, Ben Martindale, Freddie McCann, Conor McKerr, Matt Montgomery, Fergus O'Neill, Dillon Pennington, Dane Schadendorf, Ben Slater, Josh Tongue.

Durham: Alex Lees (c), Colin Ackermann, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, George Drissell, Emilio Gay, Mitch Killeen, Ben McKinney, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, Ollie Robinson.

Warwickshire: Alex Davies (c), Taz Ali, Ethan Bamber, Ed Barnard, Michael Booth, Danny Briggs, Vishwa Fernando, Sam Hain, Jake Lintott, Dan Mousley, Hamza Shaikh, Che Simmons, Kai Smith, Rob Yates.

Sussex: John Simpson (c), Danny Lamb, Oli Carter, Jayden Seales, Jack Carson, Tom Haines, Sean Hunt, Ollie Robinson, Tom Clark, James Coles, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Ari Karvelas, Tom Alsop, Daniel Hughes. 

Somerset: Lewis Gregory (c), Archie Vaughan, Sean Dickson, Tom Lammonby, Tom Abell, Tom Banton, James Rew, Kasey Aldridge, Craig Overton, Migael Pretorius, Josh Davey, Jack Leach, Jake Ball, Alfie Ogborne.

Worcestershire: Brett D'Oliveira (c), Jake Libby, Matthew Waite, Gareth Roderick, Tom Taylor, Henry Cullen, Ben Gibbon, Kashif Ali, Tom Hinley, Adam Hose, Adam Finch, Ben Allison, Ethan Brookes, Rob Jones. 

Hampshire: Ben Brown (c), Kyle Abbott, Tony Albert, Sonny Baker, Liam Dawson, James Fuller, Nick Gubbins, Brett Hampton, Fletcha Middleton, Tom Prest, Mark Stoneman, John Turner, Brad Wheal.

Yorkshire: Jonny Bairstow (c), Finlay Bean, Dom Bess, Ben Cliff, Ben Coad, George Hill, Will Luxton, Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan, Dan Moriarty, Jonny Tattersall, Jordan Thompson, James Wharton, Jack White. 

Essex: Tom Westley (c), Charlie Allison, Jordan Cox, Sam Cook, Matt Critchley, Simon Harmer, Mackenzie Jones, Michael Pepper, Jamie Porter, Shane Snater, Noah Thain, Paul Walter.

Surrey: Rory Burns (c), Jordan Clark, Matt Fisher, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Ryan Patel, Ollie Pope, Kemar Roach, Dom Sibley, Jamie Smith, James Taylor, Dan Worrall, Yousef Majid. 

Curious as to who could challenge Surrey this time? Here are three sides with the best chance.

The County Championship gets underway today. Follow all the live updates here