Durham head to Bristol looking to claim their first victory of the 2026 Rothesay County Championship.
Ryan Campbell has named an unchanged squad of 13 to face Gloucestershire following last week’s opening draw with Kent, as Callum Parkinson and James Minto remain in contention.
Durham face a Gloucestershire side who suffered defeat to Middlesex at Lord’s in the opening round of the County Championship.
Ryan Campbell’s side sit fourth in the Division Two table after round one with 13 points picked up against Kent in Chester-le-Street.
Squad v Gloucestershire (10-13 April)
Colin Ackermann, Kasey Aldridge, David Bedingham, Graham Clark, Emilio Gay, Alex Lees*, Ben McKinney, James Minto, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Kemar Roach, Ollie Robinson+
Words from Ryan Campbell
It’s easy to be disappointed but it’s hard to win games of cricket in three days. We got sent in against Kent on a wicket that gave plenty to the bowlers yet we were still the only team that could win the game throughout I thought.
(On Emilio Gay) He’s a hard worker and he wants to get better. Every time he comes to training, he always has a plan. He just wants to get better every day, if everyone was like that, you’d have an easy job as a coach to be honest.
We head to Bristol against a good Gloucestershire side who will be gunning for a result.
Opposition Corner
Captain: Cameron Bancroft
Head Coach: Mark Alleyne
2025 finish: 6th
2025 highest run-scorer: James Bracey (1,010)
2025 highest wicket-taker: Ajeet Singh Dale (40)
Key winter moves: Australian pace bowler Gabe Bell is available for the first six Rothesay County Championship games and is expected to relish English conditions, while the recruitment of Will Williams from Lancashire and the return of Craig Miles from Warwickshire will further strengthen a seam attack depleted by the moves of Josh Shaw, Ajeet Singh Dale, Tom Price and Zaman Akhter to Somerset, Lancashire, Sussex and Essex respectively.
What we’re looking forward to seeing: Whether Ben Charlesworth can continue his development into a genuine big-hitting all-rounder. The powerful left-hander looks set to open the batting with skipper Cameron Bancroft after scoring 914 Championship runs at an average of nearly 40 last season. Having made his debut at 17, 25-year-old Charlesworth is now a seasoned first XI player and has been working on his right-arm seam bowling, which brought 16 Championship wickets in 2025.
Aiming to catch the Test selectors’ eye: After suffering a dip in form following two Test appearances against New Zealand in 2021, James Bracey looked back to his best last season, averaging 50.5 in 24 Championship innings. A capable wicketkeeper, Bracey earned a reputation for sound defence in his early Gloucestershire career but has developed his shot-making and was Gloucestershire’s leading six-hitter in four-day cricket during 2025.
Final thought: The appointment of Jon Lewis as director of cricket last October means that, along with head coach Mark Alleyne, Gloucestershire go into the new season with two of their most experienced former players at the helm. Lewis took 849 first class wickets during his playing career as a seamer and it will be fascinating to see how he can influence a new-look pace attack, which will need to gel quickly if the team are to challenge for promotion.
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 Gloucestershire’s YouTube channel. Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.