Warwickshire v Essex (a): Rothesay County Championship preview

Warwickshire travel south to take on Essex in the penultimate fixture of their Rothesay County Championship campaign, with the Bears well and truly in title contention.

2026-09-14T09:45+01:00

After blowing away Glamorgan inside two days last week, Ed Barnard’s team face a tricky task against a team fighting for survival.

Here’s what you need to know before play gets under way at 10:30am on Tuesday 15 September…

Team news

Warwickshire have named an unchanged squad for the trip to Essex, with the playing XI to be announced at the toss.

Bears squad: Ed Barnard, Kai Smith, Jordan Thompson, Will Young, Ethan Bamber, Chris Woakes, Olly Hannon-Dalby, Manav Suthar, Zen Malik, Rob Yates, Dan Mousley, Sam Hain, Vansh Jani, Michael Booth

How things stand in Division One

Three teams remain in the race for the title, with Warwickshire currently in third place in the table after their stunning victory against Glamorgan last week. Five points separate the three leading teams, with Somerset top on 189 points, defending champions Nottinghamshire second on 185 points and the Bears just one point further back on 184 points in third. It is going down to the wire.

This week all three teams are on the road. Warwickshire travel to Essex, Somerset play Yorkshire at Headingley and Nottinghamshire are away against Sussex.

Bears form

The Bears are playing their best cricket of the season at just the right time. Since four-day cricket returned last month, they’ve picked up three wins and a solitary draw, and travel to Essex fresh from back-to-back victories.

The first of those came away against Hampshire, where the Bears won by an innings and 129 runs, before they dismantled Glamorgan inside two days for another innings victory, this time by an innings and 257 runs.

Across the last four innings, the Bears have taken 40 wickets for just 403 runs! After last week’s win, Barnard described the bowling attack as ‘relentless’.

Opposition insight

Essex have endured a torrid time since red-ball cricket returned, losing three and drawing one of their four fixtures. Last week against Yorkshire, they were forced to follow-on after being dismissed for 171 after Yorkshire had racked up 390 in their first innings. Essex were then 117 all out in their second innings as they lost by an innings and 106 runs.

Those results have seen Essex slip to eighth in the league, one place above the relegation zone, and in a real fight to maintain their Division One status.

Last meeting

The two teams met back in April, with Warwickshire winning a hard-fought encounter by 41 runs.

Essex led by 15 after the first innings at Edgbaston, with Sam Hain’s unbeaten 88 and Nathan Gilchrist’s four wickets the highlight for the Bears.

In the second innings, Warwickshire were in trouble at 14 for three before Beau Webster struck 14 boundaries on his way to a crucial 91 from 123 balls, while 19 not out from Ethan Bamber and 17 from number 11 Gilchrist helped the Bears to 220 all out, leaving Essex needing 206 for victory.

Early wickets from Bamber and Keith Barker saw Essex reduced to 21 for four, with Warwickshire continuing to take wickets at regular intervals. Barker would end the innings with figures of four for 29, while Bamber and Webster took two wickets apiece as Essex were bowled out for 164.