The 2025 English county cricket season begins on 4 April when 18 counties will play across Divisions One and Two of the Rothesay County Championship.

Warwickshire, who drew more games than any other side in the top tier last year, will play in Division One for the sixth consecutive season and face Yorkshire, Sussex, Nottinghamshire and six other sides.

Whilst having a poor red-ball season, the Bears reached the knockout rounds of both white-ball tournaments but failed to progress to the final in either.

You can read all our Division Two previews here.

2024 season

Warwickshire had an extremely poor first-class season in 2024, finishing seventh and only winning once all season.

It took them 11 matches to pick up a victory, which finally came against relegated Kent at the end of August.

One win, nine draws and four defeats left them with 159 points, 25 points clear of relegation but 72 behind champions Surrey.

Despite a poor campaign, newly-appointed captain Alex Davies starred with the bat and finished as the division’s third-highest run-scorer.

His 1,115 runs at an average of 50.68 were only beaten by Durham’s David Bedingham and Essex’s Dean Elgar.

Former skipper Will Rhodes was close behind in sixth with 1,020 runs at 48.57.

Fast bowler Oliver Hannon-Dalby was the county’s leading bowler, taking 50 wickets at an average of 22.28 as only three players in the division dismissed more opponents.

In Group B of the Metro Bank One Day Cup, they finished third with five wins in eight games and therefore qualified for the quarter-finals.

They then beat neighbours Worcestershire by four wickets to reach the final four but suffered a 39-run defeat to eventual champions Glamorgan.

The Welsh side hit 247/9 in their 50 overs, with all-rounder Ed Barnard taking 4/34 in his 10 overs, but Warwickshire were bowled out for 208.

Wicketkeeper Michael Burgess scored 85 but lacked support from his teammates as they fell to 62/6.

Barnard was the competition’s best player and finished as the sixth-highest scorer and joint-leading wicket-taker.

He scored 433 runs at 61.85, including a career-best 173* against Essex, and took 19 wickets at 15.68, level with Glamorgan’s Andy Gorvin and Dan Douthwaite.

The 29-year-old captained the side in the tournament, as well as opening the batting and the bowling.

Birmingham Bears topped the North Group in the Vitality Blast with 10 wins in 14 games, including six in a row in the middle of the competition.

However, they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by, again, the eventual champions, this time Gloucestershire.

Their opponents were bowled out for 130 without fulfilling their 20 overs as New Zealand all-rounder Zak Foulkes took 3/22.

Despite having a fairly low score to chase, the Bears were starved of runs by the Gloucestershire attack and stumbled to 124/9 to lose by six runs, with the now-departed Chris Benjamin top-scoring with 33.

Star batter Sam Hain was the second-highest scorer in the competition with 569 runs at 63.22.

The 29-year-old, who has played two ODIs for England, scored six half-centuries, more than anybody else, and only fell 27 runs behind Sussex’s Daniel Hughes, who played three more innings than Hain.

Left-arm spinner Danny Briggs also finished second in the bowling charts as he took 29 wickets at just 12.75, four wickets behind Gloucestershire’s David Payne.

Squad

Warwickshire will have a new head coach for the 2025 season following Mark Robinson’s departure after four seasons with the Bears.

The 58-year-old, who won the World Cup with England Women in 2017, led the county to the County Championship and Bob Willis Trophy in a Covid-affected 2021 season.

He has since joined former club Sussex on a short-term deal as part of their coaching staff.

His former assistant coach Ian Westwood has stepped up to become the Bears’ new head coach, in what is the 42-year-old’s first lead coaching role.

The former batter scored over 9,000 runs in a 16-year career at Edgbaston before retiring in 2017.

He will work with club captain Alex Davies, who took over from Will Rhodes following the 2023 season.

The 30-year-old will lead the side in the Championship and One Day Cup, with former England all-rounder Moeen Ali in charge of the T20 team.

Davies has scored 2,201 runs at 35.50 in red-ball matches and 819 at 19.50 in the Blast for the county.

He is yet to play a 50-over game since joining from Lancashire due to playing for Southern Brave in The Hundred in each of the past three seasons, but he was not retained for this year’s tournament so will be available for the One Day Cup.

Moeen re-joined Warwickshire in 2023, 17 years after leaving for Warwickshire.

The 37-year-old, who scored over 6,000 runs and took more than 350 wickets for England, will retire from county cricket once the Bears’ T20 campaign finishes but will stay around the set-up as he moves into a coaching role.

Four overseas players will turn out for the club in 2025 – Hasan Ali, Tom Latham, Vishwa Fernando and Beau Webster.

Pakistan fast bowler Hasan will return for a third season and will be available for all formats, from 29 May.

Latham has also signed a deal for the full season but recently suffered a broken finger while training with New Zealand domestic side Canterbury so will miss the first few weeks of the season.

Sri Lankan Fernando will play in the first three first-class games of the season after featuring in the same amount for Yorkshire last year.

Newly-capped Australian international Webster was signed to take part in the full T20 Blast group stage, plus any red-ball matches between May and July, but the all-rounder may miss some games if included in the Aussies’ squad for the World Test Championship final on 11 June.

The Bears’ only other signing is Middlesex seamer Ethan Bamber, who will stay at Edgbaston until the end of the 2027 season.

The 26-year-old has taken 196 first-class wickets at 27.74 and played in the 2018 U19 World Cup for England.

Former captain Will Rhodes has left to join Durham after seven seasons in Birmingham.

The all-rounder scored over 7,000 runs and took 119 wickets since signing from Yorkshire in 2017 and led the county to Division One champions and Bob Willis Trophy winners in 2021.

South African wicketkeeper Chris Benjamin has moved to Kent after four seasons with the Bears, in which he scored 1,391 runs in 68 matches.

Fellow wicketkeeper Michael Burgess has retired at the age of 30 after scoring over 4,000 runs in six seasons since signing from Sussex in 2019, and 19-year-old all-rounder Amir Khan was released after failing to make an appearance in two years.

Last year’s overseas players Aamir Jamal, Michael Rae and Zak Foulkes have all departed, with the latter joining Durham.

Seven Warwickshire players will take part in this season’s Hundred: Jacob Bethell, Dan Mousley (both Birmingham Phoenix), Richard Gleeson (London Spirit), George Garton (Manchester Originals), Danny Briggs (Southern Brave), Sam Hain (Trent Rockets) and Chris Woakes (Welsh Fire).

Full squad (as of 28/03/25):

Batters – Sam Hain, Zen Malik, Hamza Sheikh, Rob Yates

All-rounders – Moeen Ali (T20 captain), Ed Barnard, Jacob Bethell, George Garton, Dan Mousley, Beau Webster (O), Chris Woakes, Theo Wylie

Wicketkeepers – Alex Davies (CC and OD captain), Tom Latham (O), Kai Smith

Fast bowlers – Hasan Ali (O), Ethan Bamber, Michael Booth, Vishwa Fernando (O), Richard Gleeson, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Craig Miles, Chris Rushworth, Che Simmons

Spinners – Tazeem Ali, Danny Briggs, Jake Lintott

Overseas Players

Warwickshire’s star overseas player will be New Zealand Test captain Tom Latham.

The 32-year-old has scored 5,834 runs at 38.38, as well as over 4,000 ODI runs.

He has had previous county spells with Kent and Surrey, with whom he won the 2023 County Championship.

He will also give the Bears an extra keeping option, if Alex Davies wants to focus on captaincy in the field and youngster Kai Smith cannot earn a place in the team.

The returning Hasan Ali has impressed in his two seasons at Edgbaston, taking 46 wickets at 20.97 across all formats.

The fast bowler also has 240 international wickets in 141 matches for Pakistan and is an aggressive lower-order batter, striking at 77.92 with one hundred and seven half-centuries in first-class cricket.

Vishwa Fernando has played for Durham and Yorkshire in the past two seasons and also played in Sri Lanka’s Test series in England last summer.

The left-arm seamer took seven wickets in two matches and has 79 overall in Test cricket, coming at an average of 32.07.

In all red-ball matches, the 33-year-old has taken an impressive 349 wickets at 29.22.

The final overseas player, Beau Webster, scored 57 on his Test match debut to guide Australia to victory over India in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy and has also taken three wickets at 24.

In the last two seasons, the all-rounder has played for Essex and Gloucestershire, where he averaged 58 with the bat and 21 with the ball in four games.

He has scored 12 half-centuries in T20 cricket and has the ability to bowl medium pace and off-spin, so will provide a lot of variation and flexibility to Warwickshire’s line-up.

Key Player

Whilst being club captain, Alex Davies may also be the Bears’ most important batter, especially with the departure of Will Rhodes.

Although Sam Hain, Tom Latham and Jacob Bethell may be more talented players than Davies, it is in the One Day Cup where the wicketkeeper-batter could have the biggest impact on Warwickshire’s season.

After being released by the Southern Brave, he will be available for the 50-over competition for the first time since moving to Edgbaston and could provide the powerful, aggressive batting that could take his side to the final.

The Bears should be one of the favourites for the tournament with not many players unavailable and Davies could win his first trophy as captain.

The 30-year-old was also the county’s leading scorer in the Championship and is a strong powerplay hitter in T20s, showing that he will make an impact across all formats.

One to look out for

Warwickshire have quite an experienced squad in both the batting and bowling departments but do have a few very highly-rated youngsters, with Tazeem Ali being one.

The 18-year-old leg-spinner made a name for himself in last year’s U19 World Cup, where he took figures of 7/29 against Zimbabwe.

The teenager has already made his first-team debut, having played eight List A matches, but despite struggling with eight wickets at 49, he will only get better and better with more game time.

Appearances may be hard to come by in first-class and T20 cricket with Danny Briggs the number one spinner and Jake Lintott successful in the shortest format, but Tazeem could be given another run of games in the One Day Cup.

He made his debut in 2023 aged just 17 so the Bears clearly see a future for him and he could almost certainly develop into Briggs’ replacement once the 33-year-old retires or departs.

Leg-spinners are also something that England will be looking at as Adil Rashid nears closer to the end of his career so Tazeem should be setting himself the goal of earning international recognition in the next five or so years.

Prediction

Warwickshire have recruited well during the winter and look very strong in both areas of the game.

However, they will have learnt from last season that they need match-winning players to turn draws into wins to see them climb up the table.

If the likes of Latham and Hasan Ali can do that, then the Bears should achieve a top-four finish.

They will also be one of the favourites in List A cricket this season with Davies, Yates and Barnard making them possibly the strongest top-order in the competition.

Alongside holders Glamorgan, Warwickshire should reach the final of the One Day Cup.

They will also want to correct their awful form in T20 knockout matches, having failed to reach Finals Day in the past four seasons despite qualifying for the quarter-finals every time.

Talented youngsters like Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley bring x-factor ability to the side and the Bears should finally make the last four.

Warwickshire’s county season gets underway on Friday 4 April when they will face Sussex at Edgbaston in Birmingham.