Durham kick off their 2025 County Championship season tomorrow taking on Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
Ryan Campbell has named a 13-player squad for the opening match of the Rothesay County Championship season as Durham look to build on a solid fifth place finish last term.
New signing Will Rhodes is in contention to make his debut for the Club in the County Championship, while Emilio Gay will play in his first official Championship game following his loan spell at the end of last summer.
Alex Lees will also lead Durham out for the first time in the County Championship having been named Club Captain during the winter.
Having picked up a five-wicket haul against Durham UCCE last week in the final pre-season fixture along with his wickets in Harare, Mitchell Killeen remains in the squad and in contention to make his County Championship debut tomorrow.
David Bedingham is not available for the opening round as he remains with Western Province who are currently playing in the CSA Four Day Championship against North West Dragons, but is expected to arrive for next week’s match against Warwickshire. Brendan Doggett will land in the North East next week ahead of our opening fixture at home next week.
Daniel Hogg and Sam Conners aren’t available for selection as they work on their recovery following recent injuries sustained.
Words from Ryan Campbell
It’s fantastic to get outside and get back into the games, pre-season matches are fun but you’re always dreading if someone gets injured; you can kind of handle that in the thick of the action. It promises to be such an exciting season, there are ten really good teams in the County Championship and we are one of them.
I felt that with our new signings and a lot of young players coming on tour with us that we needed red ball cricket to get back into the groove of what we are after. The preparations have been good, it’s been a long old pre-season and once we get started it’s going to be all guns blazing.
Those three guys (Emilio Gay, Sam Conners and Will Rhodes) feel like they have been here forever and that is a really good sign that they’ve integrated nicely. They’re a part of the North East culture now. They have been outstanding, unfortunately Sammy has picked up an injury which sees him out of contention for the first match but unfortunately that’s part and parcel of being a fast bowler these days.
Scott (Borthwick) has been a fantastic servant for the club and will continue to be a senior player for the next two years but I felt the timing was right for Alex (Lees) to take over in all forms. I’m excited to see Alex as a player now because we all know of his leadership qualities and how good he is as a batter but I’ve seen certain people go to another level when they get the captaincy and I have a feeling that’s what Alex is going to do.
Squad v Nottinghamshire (4-7 April)
Colin Ackermann, Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, George Drissell, Emilio Gay, Mitchell Killeen, Alex Lees*, Ben McKinney, Callum Parkinson, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Will Rhodes, Ollie Robinson+
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 match centre and Nottinghamshire YouTube channel, Durham Cricket will have full coverage on social media, with a full match report at the close.
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