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.
One of last season’s most impressive counties were Worcestershire, who achieved their highest-ever finish since the county system split into two divisions in 2000.
With a crop of talented youngsters, could the Pears be in for an even better season?
They will face off against Yorkshire, Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and five other top-flight sides, while eight other counties will compete in Division Two.
2024 season
2024 brought a mix of emotions to New Road after the devastating loss of 20-year-old spinner Josh Baker in May, who collapsed due to an undiagnosed heart defect.
Born in Redditch, he made his debut for the club in 2021 and went on to take 70 wickets across all formats.
The county retired the number 33 shirt in his honour and his teammates wore his jersey for the rest of the season in tribute to him.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, the Pears made history by finishing sixth in Division One – their highest-ever position in the two-tier county system. Their previous best was seventh in 2011.
They won three, drew seven and lost four games in red-ball cricket last season to finish with 162 points, 29 points clear of relegation.
Their three victories came in a row against Durham, Kent and Essex in June and August and secured their safety.
The county’s best batter in the competition was South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) graduate Kashif Ali, who scored 767 runs at an average of 42.61, including his first two professional centuries.
In 2022, the 27-year-old became the first player to sign a contract with a first-class county after being at SACA.
Three bowlers took 27 Championship wickets for the side – Nathan Smith, Tom Taylor and Joe Leach.
Smith had the best average of 21.14 but Taylor played fewer games than him and Leach.
The Pears were also impressive in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, finishing second in Group A after winning five of their eight games.
However, they came up short against neighbours Warwickshire in their quarter-final tie, with the Bears handing them a four-wicket defeat.
Worcestershire batted first and made a strong score of 286/9, owed to captain Jake Libby’s 112, but were blown away by Kai Smith’s unbeaten 130 off 104 balls as their opponents chased down their target with six balls remaining.
Libby finished the tournament only 13 runs short of Leicestershire’s Peter Handscomb, who topped the run charts with 539.
Libby averaged 105.20 with four not-outs in nine innings and hit four half-centuries to go with his quarter-final hundred.
18-year-old Jack Home was the county’s leading bowler and finished as the eighth-highest wicket-taker in the competition, despite only playing five matches.
The fast bowler took 16 wickets at 14.43 having only made his first-team debut in July and picked up extremely impressive figures of 6/51 against Derbyshire.
The county’s worst performances came in the Vitality Blast as the Rapids won only four out of 14 games and finished eighth in the North Group.
They lost seven consecutive games from in the middle of the group stage, effectively ending their qualification hopes.
The batting department struggled throughout the tournament with only five half-centuries being scored as all-rounder Ethan Brookes top-scored with 315 runs at just 26.25, sitting at 29th in the competition’s batting charts.
Fellow all-rounder Tom Taylor led the way with the ball, taking 17 wickets at 25.47.
Squad
Worcestershire will head into the 2025 season with Alan Richardson in charge for the third season.
The former Pears bowler was appointed head coach in November 2022, taking over from Alex Gidman.
The ex-fast bowler took 569 first-class wickets in an 18-year career, with 262 of them coming in four seasons at New Road.
He will work alongside club captain Brett D’Oliveira, who has played 330 matches for the county since making his debut in 2011.
The all-rounder has scored 9,159 runs and taken 226 wickets in 14 seasons and will be skippering the side for the fourth season.
They have brought in two overseas players for the new season – Jacob Duffy and Ben Dwarshuis.
New Zealand fast bowler Duffy has previously played for Kent and Nottinghamshire and will be available for at least seven first-class matches and eight T20 games until the end of June.
He will be joined by Australian Dwarshuis, who will be available for the entire T20 tournament and re-joins the county after a similar deal four years ago.
They have also brought in Essex bowler Ben Allison and Nottinghamshire spinner Fateh Singh, who have both had loan spells at New Road in recent seasons.
Allison has taken 69 wickets across all formats and picked up five in three red-ball matches for the county at the end of 2023.
20-year-old Singh spent the whole 50-over campaign with the Pears last season and took 15 wickets at 24.13.
He has 27 career wickets in 21 matches, with one of them being a red-ball game.
Club legend Joe Leach retired at the end of the season after taking 578 wickets and scoring 5,088 runs.
The 34-year-old joined Worcestershire in 2012 and played 250 games across all formats.
He captained them to the Division Two title in 2017 and took 48 wickets as they were promoted again in 2023.
Other departures are Josh Cobb, Olly Cox, Nathan Smith, Jason Holder, Hayden Walsh and Logan van Beek.
Cobb only spent one season in Worcester as a player but will now become the club’s Boys Academy Lead, having announced his retirement.
He scored over 13,000 runs in an 18-season career for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and the Pears.
21-year-old Cox was released after failing to earn a regular place in the team.
Overseas players Smith, Holder, Walsh and Van Beek all left after spells last season, with Smith and Van Beek signing for Surrey and Leicestershire, respectively.
The only Worcestershire player to have been selected for The Hundred is Adam Hose, who will play for Trent Rockets.
Full squad (as of 29/03/25):
Batters – Kashif Ali, Adam Hose, Jake Libby, Rob Jones, Ed Pollock
All-rounders – Ethan Brookes, Brett D’Oliveira (Captain), Rehaan Edavalath, Tom Taylor, Matthew Waite
Wicketkeepers – Henry Cullen, Gareth Roderick
Fast bowlers – Ben Allison, Harry Darley, Jacob Duffy (O), Ben Dwarshuis (O), Adam Finch, Ben Gibbon, Jack Home, Yadvinder Singh
Spinners – Tom Hinley, Fateh Singh
Overseas Players
Both of Worcestershire’s overseas players were at other counties last season.
Jacob Duffy played two first-class games for Nottinghamshire at the end of the season and took six wickets at 32.33.
Ben Dwarshuis signed an eight-game deal with Durham to play in the T20 Blast and took seven wickets at 26.14.
Duffy has taken 53 wickets for New Zealand in 12 ODIs and 23 T20Is, with the latter being his most successful format.
He has 32 wickets at 16.09 in internationals and 139 including domestic T20s.
He is one short of 300 first-class wickets, averaging 33.06 with best figures of 7/89, and has also scored three-half centuries in his career.
Dwarshuis is an experienced T20 bowler, having won the BBL twice with Sydney Sixers and being in IPL squads for Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals.
The 30-year-old has taken 179 wickets at 23.02 in the format, in which he has played three times for Australia.
He also took part in the recent Champions Trophy, playing in all of his side’s matches before being knocked out in the semi-finals to India.
Key Player
Jake Libby has been one of Worcestershire’s best performers in recent seasons and will be vital to their survival hopes in Division One.
The opening batter signed for the county in 2019 and has gone on to score 6,416 runs and 14 centuries across all formats.
He was their best batter in their promotion season two years ago, scoring 1,153 runs at 57.65, and has improved his game against the white-ball, as shown by hitting almost a third of his career 50-over runs and one of his two hundreds in 2024.
He captained the one-day side in place of the injured Brett D’Oliveira last year and will be a leader in the field, regardless of whether he is captain or not.
At the age of 32, he will be in his prime years as a batter and 2025 will be a chance for him to stake a claim as one of the best openers in Division One.
In a Pears side that looks weaker than others in the top tier, Libby’s performances with the bat may be a deciding factor in their fight against relegation.
One to look out for
There are several young players in Worcestershire’s squad, especially in the bowling department, and the most promising is Jack Home.
The right-arm fast bowler, who will turn 19 at the start of May, was the breakout star of their season in 2024 and could make an even bigger mark on the county game this year.
The teenager earned himself an England U19s call-up at the end of the season after his impressive 16 wickets in the One Day Cup and also signed a new three-year deal to stay at New Road.
He had the best average out of all bowlers to have taken more than eight wickets in the tournament and may turn into another all-round asset for the county.
He scored half-centuries in both innings of England’s first Youth Test match against South Africa in January, batting at number eight.
He is yet to show his talent with the bat for Worcestershire but it may be released in 2025.
He is also set to be given more red-ball opportunities after the retirement of Joe Leach and the departures of Nathan Smith and Jason Holder.
In a weak bowling attack, Home could emerge as one of their first-choice selections and further push his name into the eyes of England’s senior team.
Prediction
2025 may be a tough season for the Pears after losing big players from their bowling attack.
The absences of Leach and Smith will certainly hurt them and the likes of Ben Gibbon and Adam Finch have not shown the same level of quality in recent years.
Although they will have Jacob Duffy available for the first half of the season, they will suffer when he leaves and also lack an experienced red-ball spinner.
As a result, Worcestershire’s best hope for this year would be to stay in Division One, but that is something that likely will not happen.
On the other hand, they will have a very strong team in the One Day Cup with only Adam Hose unavailable, so should reach the knockout rounds again.
However, progression to the final may elude them if drawn against a team with a strong bowling attack.
Lastly, it is hard to see their T20 fortunes improving despite the arrivals of Duffy and Dwarshuis.
The Pears have an inferior batting lineup compared to other teams in the shortest format and therefore it is unlikely they will make it out of the group.
Worcestershire’s county season gets underway on Friday 4 April when they will face Somerset at the County Ground in Taunton.