The Rothesay County Championship returns tomorrow as Durham take on Kent at Banks Homes Riverside, starting at 11am.
Ryan Campbell has named a squad of 13 for the Club’s first Championship game of 2026 as Durham look to make a strong start on home soil.
Kemar Roach is in line to make his Durham first-class debut whilst new signing Kasey Aldridge is in contention to make his County Championship bow for Durham.
Ben Raine will be the Club’s vice-captain in the County Championship for the 2026 season, starting with the visit of Kent.
Daniel Hogg is Durham’s only injury absentee, missing due to a side injury sustained in Australia and is working on his recovery with the Durham Cricket Science and Medicine team.
Squad v Kent (3-6 April)
Kasey Aldridge, David Bedingham, Graham Clark, Emilio Gay, Alex Lees*, Ben McKinney, James Minto, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, Kemar Roach, Ollie Robinson+
Words from Ryan Campbell
Opposition Corner
Captain: Daniel Bell-Drummond
Head Coach: Adam Hollioake
2025 finish: 8th
2025 highest run-scorer: Ben Compton (1,386)
2025 highest wicket-taker: Matt Parkinson (35)
Key winter moves: Domestically there are no entirely new faces, but Sam Northeast and Matt Milnes both return and the talent drain seems to have stopped. Aside from Nathan Gilchrist, who joined Warwickshire, Kent kept everyone they wanted to after a summer spent worrying that Tawanda Muyeye, Joey Evison and Grant Stewart might leave. The overseas contingent is entirely South African: Keith Dudgeon returns for the season, joined by Glenton Stuurman for the first phase and Senuran Muthusamy from May onwards.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: A genuinely competitive team again. Kent’s bowling unit has been decimated by injuries in the last two years. This time round the seamers will be heavily rotated to prevent a repeat and the wickets will no longer be batting paradises.
Aiming to catch Test selectors’ eye: There’s a clutch of talented youngsters but the most likely to succeed might be Ben Dawkins, who is going to be “huge”, according to no less an authority than Sam Billings. A tall, multi-format batter from the same school as Zak Crawley (Sevenoaks), he’s played for England Under-19s and made an outstanding, unbeaten 111 in List A cricket. Averages 34.4 in four red-ball appearances.
Final thought: Kent’s 2025 season was so desperate that Hollioake resorted to calling in a “non-denominational geopathic surveyor” to the ground over the winter “to support the promotion of positive well-being.” The story went viral, but if Kent’s fortunes do improve this year there may be less fatuous explanations: they’ve recruited well, retained well and they won’t be squandering home advantage by asking undercooked bowlers to toil for two days on lifeless surfaces.
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via Durham’s YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.