With the cricket season getting underway tomorrow Ben Holliday has been looking at the 2026 season and why there are reasons for Kent fans to be optimistic.

Rock bottom of division two, 18 batting points from a possible 70, winless after 6th April, three defeats by an innings: 2025 was a bleak year for Kent’s red-ball side. Statistically, it was their worst since the arrival of the two-division championship.

 But this year is a new season and Kent fans have five reasons to be hopeful!

1. They have an experienced and proven new-ball partnership.

Cult-hero Keith Dudgeon, who eviscerated Northamptonshire for Kent’s second (and final) win of 2025, has returned to Canterbury with opening partner Glenton Stuurman. The pair have been successfully opening the bowling for Boland over the English winter, with Stuurman taking 22 wickets from seven games at 27.40 in the CSA first division. Both men have solid first-class records with Stuurman taking 278 wickets from 84 matches at 24.46, while Dudgeon has 239 wickets from 80 matches at 26.05.

Kent struggled to take wickets in 2025: over the 14 games, they took 20 wickets in only two of them, and they only managed to bowl a side out in an innings on ten occasions. They also encountered seven declarations against them, six of which were for over 500 runs. Having proven wicket takers will undoubtedly be an asset.

 2.       Matt Milnes is back!

Milnes had a good spell with Kent and was the leading wicket taker in 2019 under the watchful eye of former bowling coach Allan Donald. He continued to perform well for Yorkshire in 2023-25, although injuries affected his game time. Moreover, if we compare him to the player he most likely replaced – Nathan Gilchrist – his record is stronger with an average of 28.58 compared to Gilchrist’s of 32.02. He also has a batting average of nearly 20 to boot and has played almost all his cricket in division one.

Milnes is an asset and an upgrade.

3.       Sam Northeast is back!

Former captain Sam Northeast has returned to his boyhood club after eight seasons away, shared equally between Hampshire and Glamorgan. He scored plenty of runs for Kent, finishing as their top run scorer in 2015 and 2016, and has 35 hundreds and an average over 40 from 236 FC games. This is far superior to outgoing senior batter Jack Leaning’s more modest record of 11 hundreds and an average of 32 from 131 games. And while we may miss Leaning’s occasional off-breaks, Northeast has captaincy experience at Kent and Glamorgan, which will be an asset to the side when they’re in the field, trying to force a result.    

 4.       Zak Crawley’s test place is under scrutiny.

While this may sound like a swipe against the Bromley-born test opener, there is an argument on both sides that benefits Kent.

There are miles of column inches and weeks of podcast material dedicated to the aggressive opening batting enigma that is Zak Crawley, which is not worth repeating here. The fact is that the England test side has undergone a chastening Ashes winter and Rob Key’s focus has been redirected towards the county game where he now insists players need to earn their place through weight of runs rather than “hitting one in the air after getting to 70.” The subtext is clear for Crawley and, regardless of the outcome, he will no doubt be keen to put in plenty of good performances for his county, meaning Kent will likely get him for more matches and with a point to prove.

5.       Say it quietly … Kent appear to have a fully fit squad (knocks firmly on wood)

Injuries have blighted the county side in recent years. Joe Denly, Matt Quinn, Keith Dudgeon, Jas Singh, Nathan Gilchrist, Tawanda Muyeye, Grant Stewart, Chris Benjamin and Daniel Bell-Drummond all fell foul of the ‘Kent Curse’ which led coach Adam Hollioake to employ a faith healer to ‘warden off the evil spirits’ that clearly had an agenda against Kent’s pace attack.

However – as things stand – the squad is notably stronger than in 2025, the overseas pros are experienced attack leaders, the youth players have more experience under their belts, and no-one is currently injured.

Here’s to a successful 2026 in the county championship.