A clutch of Australians with Ashes ambitions will feature in domestic cricket this summer despite calls for the 18 first-class clubs to stop making the County Championship a finishing school where Aussies learn how to take down England.
In the aftermath of England’s 4-1 defeat by Australia last month, ECB bosses were keen for the counties to look elsewhere for overseas talent, and captain Ben Stokes said of recruiting Aussies: ‘I’ve never really understood it. I don’t think Australia would sign a visa for one of our lads to come over and play Sheffield Shield games before an Ashes.’
But Daily Mail Sport can reveal that the number of players with sights on earning a Test tour place for next year’s battle for the urn will be increasing over the next few weeks, with multiple deals close to completion.
Sean Abbott, who was named in Australia’s first Test squad but did not make it to Perth after succumbing to a hamstring injury, is returning for a fifth season with Surrey, staying until the end of the T20 Blast and around for eight Championship matches.
Abbott, 34 later this month, is with Australia’s squad at the Twenty20 World Cup and Surrey’s director of cricket Alec Stewart has previously praised his prowess in both four-day and limited-overs cricket, adding that ‘he is exactly what we look for in an overseas professional’.
The bowling all-rounder featured in two Championship title-winning campaigns in 2023 and 2024, taking 47 wickets at 26.26 apiece and averaging 38 with the bat. He also hit the joint-fastest hundred in the history of the Blast three years ago, from just 34 deliveries against Kent.
His presence will deepen the seam bowling stocks at The Oval which also include England Test bowlers Gus Atkinson and Matthew Fisher, the highly consistent duo of Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark plus England Lions player Tom Lawes.
Sean Abbott, who was named in Australia’s first Test squad for the Ashes but did not make it to Perth after succumbing to a hamstring injury, is returning for a fifth season with Surrey
He hit the joint-fastest hundred in the history of the Blast three years ago, from just 34 deliveries against Kent
Glamorgan add Australia star’s son
With Australia’s legendary Test attack ageing, it is perhaps no surprise that those next in line are so willing to gain experience of English conditions.
Sam Elliott, son of former Test opening batsman Matthew Elliott, is one of them and looks to be heading to promoted Glamorgan. The 25-year-old has 23 Sheffield Shield wickets in just four appearances for table-topping Victoria, with a strike rate of 31 and average of just 13. He leads an attack that also includes Lancashire-bound Mitch Perry (25 victims at an average of 21) and Nottinghamshire’s Fergus O’Neill (22 at 21).
Glamorgan, for whom Elliott Snr enjoyed five seasons in the 2000s, appear to have won Elliott’s signature amid interest from several Division Two clubs.
Glamorgan have also snapped up Nathan McAndrew, an Australian with plenty of previous experience here, on a Twenty20 contract. McAndrew, 32, finished sixth in the wicket-takers’ list of the 2025 Blast for Sussex, but was prevented from re-signing at Hove because of the spending restrictions imposed by the ECB after the club asked for additional financial support.
Sam Elliott, son of former Test opening batsman Matthew Elliott and star of this season’s Sheffield Shield, is on his way to Glamorgan
Vultures circling at cash-strapped Sussex
Sussex director of cricket Paul Farbrace also had McAndrew at Warwickshire before taking him to the south coast and wanted to retain him in T20 plans for 2026.
But the club were blocked when trying to recruit another overseas bowler for the first half of the season by the ECB because of their financial problems.
However, veteran Australian opening batsman Daniel Hughes, 37 next week, is returning as he held a two-year contract that still has a season to run. Hughes is available across all formats as Sussex begin the four-day competition with a 12-point penalty in addition to two-point deductions in the white-ball formats.
Similarly, India bowler Jaydev Unadkat’s agreement to play eight matches in late season pre-dates the financial penalties. The left-armer’s next scalp will be his 50th first-class wicket for the club.
But the money issues at Sussex mean they will be extremely unlikely to keep hold of players who are out of contract at the end of this coming summer. Rival counties may also be tempted to target those in contract too, as the ECB have given explicit instructions to reduce the wage bill under the conditions set for loaning the club money.
Daily Mail Sport understands that Farbrace has held several sets of discussions with the playing squad to outline the ‘very real’ threat that there will be exits before the end of the season.
Sussex head coach and former England assistant Paul Farbrace (left) is battling tight financial restrictions after the county’s rule breaches
Paris match for Yorkshire
Yorkshire are expected to complete their overseas quota by adding Western Australia left-armer Joel Paris for the Championship, to join Dutchman Logan van Beek for all competitions and T20 specialist Naveen-ul-Haq for the Blast.
Paris, 33, is currently sidelined with a groin injury, but Yorkshire will hope it is of a similarly minor nature to the shoulder issue that is plaguing Naveen.
When Afghanistan announced that their opening bowler was unfit for the T20 World Cup, rumours surfaced that he required surgery, but that has since been rubbished by Yorkshire, who insist there will be no threat to his presence in a new-look squad also featuring ex-England star Moeen Ali and Australia international AJ Tye.
Paris was capped in one-day internationals 10 years ago but it is in first-class assignments that he has excelled, taking 203 wickets at 19.61. Since the Covid outbreak in 2020, his record is 136 at 17.82. His signing would provide added variety to a bowling group that lost Jordan Thompson to Warwickshire and Matt Milnes to Kent at the end of last season.
Joel Paris, pictured left with Yorkshire-born Australia star Josh Inglis, is expected to join the White Rose this season
Even Stokes’ county go for the Aussies!
Despite Stokes’ protestations, his own county Durham made approaches to re-sign Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett – two members of Australia’s Ashes pace artillery this winter. However, neither is available for the early-season stint that director of cricket Marcus North and coach Ryan Campbell want to cover.
Boland, 36, was injured on his Durham debut two years ago and never played again. South Australia’s Doggett, who bagged seven England wickets in two appearances in Perth and Brisbane before Christmas, told Durham he was keen to return and improve on a modest first spell in 2025 yielding nine wickets in three matches.
But a grade two hamstring tear in Sheffield Shield action last weekend that saw him leave Sydney on crutches is set to keep him on the sidelines for at least 10 weeks, meaning he would have missed the first three rounds of Championship matches.
Durham have approached alternatives and hope to wrap up a recruit in the next few days, with Codi Yusuf, who credited his first county stint in the North East with helping him win a maiden Test cap with South Africa last year, one option.
Ben Stokes’ Durham bosses had explored moves for both Brendan Doggett (second left) and Scott Boland (second right)
Will Holder be back at New Road?
One Australian who will not be coming over to the UK this summer is Ben Dwarshuis, who informed Worcestershire that he won’t be fulfilling his T20 deal after picking up a lucrative Indian Premier League gig.
Beyers Swanepoel, the South African all-rounder signed to represent the Pears in the County Championship, also has strong short-format pedigree and represents an option to step in, as does their other ‘import’ Daniel Lategan, the Cape Town-born teenage batsman serving a three-year qualification period to eventually qualify for England.
But director of cricket Ashley Giles will reinvest the money used for the acquisition of Dwarshuis on a replacement.
Another left-armer, Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi, is known to be keen on a county stint while the 2025 Metro Bank Cup winners have also retained a strong bond with former West Indies captain Jason Holder.
Worcestershire need a new overseas player and could turn to their former star Jason Holder
Konstas eyes up county stint
Hampshire are on the lookout for a replacement for Michael Neser, who is available for the first six Division One fixtures before returning Down Under.
Neser’s fellow Australian Jack Edwards, whose proposed stint last year at the Utilita Bowl was scuppered by a back problem, is still on the club’s wishlist, but may not want to follow a two-month stay at the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad with more time away from home.
Edwards’ New South Wales team-mate Sam Konstas, looking to revive his career following his axing by Australia, is keen on experiencing English conditions and strengthening his chances of wearing the Baggy Green again, but is yet to be snapped up.
Sam Konstas, looking to revive his career following his axing by Australia, is keen to play in English conditions and strengthening his chances of wearing the Baggy Green again
Middlesex line up new Kiwi head coach
Middlesex have identified New Zealand’s Peter Fulton – known as Two Metre Peter during his international playing days – to become their head coach.
Fulton, 47, won the Plunkett Shield – New Zealand’s first-class competition – in his first season in charge of Canterbury last year and has emerged as favourite ahead of Ottis Gibson, who led Yorkshire to promotion 18 months ago and has coached West Indies and South Africa internationally in addition to two spells as England’s bowling coach.
Dane Vilas took over midway through 2025 when Richard Johnson was sacked, but was not re-engaged during a winter that has seen the club suspend its chief executive Andrew Cornish and brace itself to publish accounts revealing hefty losses.
They pulled off a coup by signing Kiwi great Kane Williamson last year, but are yet to secure any overseas signings for the coming season – unsurprising given the lack of a head coach to date and a hugely uncertain financial picture.
