Essex tailed off a little bit in red ball cricket last season and have already seen their plans in that discipline hampered heading into the new campaign. A frustrating white ball season made their 2024 a disappointing one, one they will be looking to make up for over the course of the 2025 summer.
Last Season
County Championship: Fourth in Division 1
One Day Cup: Group Stage
Vitality Blast: Group Stage
Club
Captain: Tom Westley
Overseas Player(s): Simon Harmer
Ins: N/A
Outs: Ben Allison, Aaron Beard, Feroze Khushi
One to watch: Luc Benkenstein – all-rounder who played some important innings in white ball cricket and will be looking to force his way into the red ball side.
Championship Odds: 13/2 General
Strengths
You would have to say that the strength of this Essex side is their top order. Alastair Cook might be a thing of the past but Dean Elgar is capable of churning out plenty of runs at this level, as evidenced by the 1144 runs he scored in the Championship last season. Nick Browne is capable at the top of the order but the Tom Westley, Jordan Cox, Michael Pepper, Adam Rossington middle order axis gives Essex the chance of big things in all competitions this season.
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Weaknesses
There is no doubt that when everyone is fit the Essex bowling unit is good enough to compete at the business end of all three competitions but Simon Harmer had an ordinary season last term and Jamie Porter and Sam Cook had their fitness issues. With Shardul Thakur being a late pick up in the Indian Premier League they really need that trio to stay fit and to fire or they will need one of the lesser heralded youngsters to come to the party in a big way.
Trophy Prospects
Essex will fancy their chances of chasing down Surrey in the County Championship but surely the Vitality Blast is their best hope of silverware this season. A top four which will contain Rossington, Pepper, Cox and Robin Das is more than competitive in the South Group and with the white ball the likes of Paul Walter and Matt Critchley are more than useful operators. Keep them on your side when the T20 comes along.
England Duty
Brendon McCullum may well be on the phone to Chelmsford a few times this summer. Jordan Cox is likely to be involved in the white ball set up for England while it can only be a matter of time before Sam Cook has a call up of some kind as well. The likes of Michael Pepper, Paul Walter and Matt Critchley all have the talent to be included in England squads too if they can have a big start to the season.
Predicted Championship Finishing Position: 4th
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