The 2025 domestic season was put to bed last weekend with the thrilling conclusion of the County Championship, as Nottinghamshire sealed the title – and Durham suffered a nightmare relegation.
As well as Notts, Leicestershire, Somerset and Worcestershire claimed the season’s silverware, but who were the players that stood out across the three formats and what do those efforts mean for their immediate futures?
Here, Daily Mail Sport picks our team of the year – and reveals what lies on the horizon for the 11 men in question…
HASEEB HAMEED (Nottinghamshire)
At 28, there is still time for Hameed to develop two flirtations with Test cricket into a full England career, even if it appears unlikely under the current regime.
What has changed since Hameed first burst on to the international scene as a teenage opening batsman is his spectrum of experience. Having dealt with the adversity of being surplus to requirements at his boyhood club Lancashire, his second coming at Trent Bridge has developed into something special.
Yes, the prolific run-scoring has returned – 1,258 of them in the 2025 top flight placed him second behind Surrey’s Dom Sibley – but he has also captained with a statesmanlike presence. His calm on-field demeanour was a feature of the stunning late-season win at the Oval that wrested the momentum in the title race away from Surrey. He is set to sign a new deal with the club.
After being deemed surplus to requirements at boyhood club Lancashire, Haseeb Hameed’s second coming at Trent Bridge under coach Peter Moores (right) has been special
Emilio Gay moved to Durham a year ago to further his ambitions of playing for England
EMILIO GAY (Durham)
Gay moved to the North East 12 months ago to further his international ambitions and has done so, having played in a manner that fits the Bazball mantra.
His 1,076 first-class runs in 2025 came at a strike rate of 64 and the 25-year-old left-hander’s conversion rate of turning four of his six 50s into hundreds has also impressed the national selectors.
It means he will begin this winter with his dreams of playing for England enhanced, as he is part of the second-string Lions squad shadowing the main tour to Australia.
And in a quirky twist, he could end it by playing against them for Italy in February’s Twenty20 World Cup. Gay’s mother is Italian and that means he remains eligible to represent the European minnows – as he has three times this year – until he wins a full England cap.
JAMES REW (Somerset)
The way in which Rew led Somerset in one-day cricket this year belied his 21 years.
He received his first full England call-up – replacing the injured spare batsman Jordan Cox for the one-off Zimbabwe Test at the start of the summer – and although he did not feature, his selection was an indication of where he stands as a back-up to both Jamie Smith as England’s Test wicketkeeper and the established group of middle-order batsmen.
It coincided with him becoming the youngest Englishman (at 21 and 114 days) to score 10 first-class hundreds since Denis Compton in 1939. It was to his credit that he maintained focus on his day job thereafter, breaking the 1,000-run barrier in Division One for the second time in three seasons, and Rew will head Down Under with England Lions, with his younger brother Tom as one of his team-mates.
Somerset’s James Rew is a top prospect and received his first England call-up in May
Ben Kellaway of Glamorgan has the unusual ability to bowl spin with both arms, but that is far from his only gift
BEN KELLAWAY (Glamorgan)
Not naturally ambidextrous, but able to bowl spin with both arms, the 21-year-old claimed half-a-dozen of his 35 victims across all competitions for Glamorgan this past season with his left.
However, such unique ability within English domestic cricket is far from the Chepstow-raised all-rounder’s only gift.
Kellaway’s 813 runs at an average of 54.2 were a bedrock of the Welsh county’s surge to promotion: a career-best 181 not out against Kent set up the first victory in a 10-match unbeaten run from May that secured a top-two finish. He also became Glamorgan’s youngest-ever player to hit a hundred and take a five-wicket haul in a Championship match, against Gloucestershire.
These feats contributed to the higher recognition of an England Lions call on Tuesday.
SAIF ZAIB (Northamptonshire)
The County Championship’s leading run-scorer is a fascinating talent.
The 27-year-old was prolific with the bat this season in the four-day game, so much so that he was discussed by England’s selectors with a view to going to Australia, but his multi-format ability with the ball means he also features on the wishlists of International League T20 sides ahead of Wednesday’s auction for the Middle East tournament.
Weighing up which path to concentrate on is not straightforward for either the England hierarchy or the player, who has flourished so much under ex-Australia coach Darren Lehmann that he upgraded his previous best season’s productivity with the bat by 147.5 per cent.
In addition to his 1,425 Division Two runs, he chipped in with 13 wickets at 25 with his slow left-armers. Zaib also struck 302 Twenty20 runs and injected hope into Northants’ Blast semi-final against Hampshire with three for 18 at the end of a career-changing summer.
Saif Zaib, seen here going on the attack against Leicestershire, was the County Championship’s most prolific batsman with 1,425 runs for Northants
Warwickshire’s Ed Barnard took home £10,000 for winning the PCA’s Most Valuable Player of the Year award
ED BARNARD (Warwickshire)
Barnard, 29, deservedly won the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s Most Valuable Player of the Year award and its £10,000 cash prize this weekend.
He will now hope that his efforts to increase his speed of scoring – his strike rate for the Bears in the Blast was up to 159 – reaps a first overseas franchise placement over the winter at either the ILT20, Big Bash League or SA20.
He was also the club’s leading scorer, at better than a run a ball, in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, and was Warwickshire’s No 1 batter in the Championship too, accumulating 922 runs at 54.2. The 29 wickets with his seam, including six in a man-of-the-match display to beat Durham, made it just about the perfect season.
MATTHEW REVIS (Yorkshire)
Harry Brook is a big fan of a player that emerged from the same Burley-in-Wharfedale club side and followed him into the Yorkshire first team.
Now, on the back of some impressive displays across all formats in 2025, the 23-year-old, who has recovered from a stress fracture of the back, is set to take another step on Brook’s trail by heading to Australia next month with England Lions.
This was Revis’ breakout year at county level, and one in which he finally addressed the lingering question about his abundant ability: is he a batting or seam bowling all-rounder?
Three midsummer First Division County Championship hundreds in a campaign in which he averaged in the 60s answered that.
All-rounder Matthew Revis had a breakout year for Yorkshire and averaged over 60 with the bat
Ben Green was an integral member of Leicestershire’s promotion-winning side
BEN GREEN (Leicestershire)
It was a stunning season for the all-rounder, who became an integral member of Leicestershire’s promotion-sealing XI, taking 31 Division Two wickets at 20.9 apiece, while on loan from Somerset.
He also hit 195 lower-order runs and took 20 wickets as an ever-present in the Blast success with his primary employers.
The 28-year-old was also a mainstay of the Somerset side that reached the Metro Bank Cup semi-final, meaning that he tasted victory 26 times across the season – more than any other player on the county scene.
This winter he switches to Leicester permanently on a two-year deal and will be offered the club’s T20 captaincy, Daily Mail Sport understands, following the release of Louis Kimber.
FERGUS O’NEILL (Nottinghamshire)
Although his time on the county scene was limited to 28 days at the start of the season due to ECB rules, the Australian provided Nottinghamshire with early impetus in their title charge, taking 21 wickets in four appearances.
A nervous flyer, who had never previously ventured further than New Zealand – where he was born before growing up in Victoria – he nevertheless made a flying start, with eight wickets on debut in the first-round win over Durham.
A change in the ECB rules means he now qualifies to play a full season in 2026 and Nottinghamshire are expected to sign him up ahead of an Ashes series beginning on November 21, 2026 that could yet feature the popular Australia A seamer.
Aussie Fergus O’Neill gave Nottinghamshire early impetus in their title charge, taking 21 wickets in four appearances
Leicestershire’s Alex Green, seen here representing England Under 19s earlier this month, had a brilliant Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaign
ALEX GREEN (Leicestershire)
Green could easily be mistaken for one of Leicester Tigers’ lock forwards up the road.
A hulking fast bowler who owes his selection in this Team of the Year to a remarkable Metro Bank Cup campaign this August in which he bagged three five-wicket hauls in the space of a fortnight – more than Andrew Flintoff or Stuart Broad managed in their entire careers.
Still only 18, if he can continue to dismiss opponents regularly and develop his athleticism and mobility, he will appear on England’s radar in the future.
For now, though, he will be part of the England Under-19 squad heading to the Caribbean this autumn for five youth one-day internationals against West Indies and two versus USA – preparation for next January’s World Cup in southern Africa.
TOM TAYLOR (Worcestershire)
Previously a journeyman seamer with three other Midlands counties (Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire), the 30-year-old has found a home at New Road, finishing as the Championship’s leading wicket-taker with 58 – doubling his personal best in the process.
Worcestershire bowler Tom Taylor had one of his best seasons yet aged 30
All this despite Worcestershire’s top-flight struggles that saw them marooned at the bottom, 41 points below the rest.
Taylor will have taken much pleasure in his 2025 achievements, though, which also included a winner’s medal on an emotional day for the Pears – following last year’s death of Josh Baker – at the Metro Bank Cup final in September.
