MATCH PREVIEW: Gloucestershire v Lancashire
Lancashire are up and running in this season’s Championship, and how!
Gloucestershire v Lancashire
Rothesay County Championship, Division Two
Friday April 17 - Monday April 20, 2026, 11am
The Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol
What a performance that was from the Red Rose bowlers on day four to pull their game out of the fire against Derbyshire, who were chasing a total of only 138.
Captain Fantastic Sir James Anderson starred with 4-18 as the Peakites - fancied by many to be in the promotion mix come September - were skittled for just 108 either side of lunch.
All the bowlers contributed significantly, while Marcus Harris should take immense credit for his 125 in the first innings and 66 in the second in his first appearance of the season.
Lancashire have now drawn one and won one following their opening round dominance against Northamptonshire, who held on at the end nine wickets down.
Harris now returns to his former county Gloucestershire this weekend. They have started the season with back-to-back innings defeats against Middlesex and Durham.
Opposition
Gloucestershire have had a nightmare start to the summer because of their aforementioned defeats to Middlesex and Durham.
Captained by Australian batter Cameron Bancroft and coached by Mark Alleyne, they finished sixth in Division Two last summer.
Lancashire and Gloucestershire almost swapped seam bowlers over the winter. Ajeet Singh Dale has arrived at Emirates Old Trafford, while Will Williams has moved down to the West Country.
Alongside the departure of Singh Dale, Gloucestershire lost three more seamers over the winter in Zaman Akhter to Essex, Tom Price to Sussex and Josh Shaw to Somerset. They did, however, get pacer Craig Miles back from Warwickshire.
Gloucestershire have also signed another Aussie in fast bowler Gabe Bell, who is with them for the first block of Championship matches.
Previous meeting
Lancashire and Gloucestershire met twice in Division Two last season.
They drew at Emirates Old Trafford at the start of May, a high-scoring game which saw first-innings totals of 450 and 589-8 declared in favour of the visitors and scores of 167 and 253 from Marcus Harris and Ollie Price respectively.
In the return fixture, at Cheltenham College in late July, Lancashire triumphed by nine wickets in a match Tom Hartley will never ever forget.
Having elected to bat, the Red Rose racked up 557 all out, including 106 for Matty Hurst, 160 for Chris Green and 130 for Hartley. From 302-8, Green and Hartley shared 212 for the ninth wicket - a Lancashire record stand for that wicket in first-class cricket.
Glos then responded with 381, including 6-116 for Hartley’s left-arm spin. One of his wickets was opener Ben Charlesworth stumped by Phil Salt for 160.
Following-on, the hosts had to face Hartley with the new ball on a spin-friendly track, and they weren’t up to the task as the England man claimed 5-99 to bowl them out for 285 just after tea on day four.
That left Lancashire with a target of 110, which they achieved for the loss of one wicket in 21 overs. Keaton Jennings posted an unbeaten 57 and Josh Bohannon 45 not out. They shared an unbroken 103.
What they said
Captain Sir James Anderson and head coach Steven Croft have been talking about squad rotation, especially within the fast-bowling department ahead of Lancashire’s trip to face Gloucestershire at Bristol.
New fast-bowling signing Ajeet Singh Dale and all-rounder George Balderson were left out of the win against Derbyshire, with Mitch Stanley and Paul Coughlin coming in.
It showed the strength in depth that the Red Rose management have at their disposal.
Anderson said: “It’s a tricky one because we’ve got probably six or seven bowlers pushing for four slots.
“We're trying to just make sure everyone gets some game time, try and keep everyone fresh.
“But also there's an element of taking it week by week, seeing how people pull up from games and managing that and seeing how the conditions are at each ground that you go to.”
Croft added: “George was rested, and that's all it was really - sort of a rotation.
“To have that luxury to rotate him out and bring someone of Paul Coughlin’s quality in was brilliant.
“Coggers had a brilliant debut with bat, ball and in the field. He’s the sort of cricketer everyone wants in their side. To have the luxury is brilliant for us.
“I think, later down the road, those conversations will get harder and harder if we stay as a fit squad.
“Obviously it's happened to Balders and Ajeet as well. Just a rotation out. And, yes, obviously, there's going to be some more headaches going into Gloucester.”
How’s Stat!
In posting 130 in the first innings and then taking 11-215 in the match at Cheltenham last July, Tom Hartley became only the sixth Lancashire player to score 100 runs or more and take 10 or more wickets in the same first-class match.
RG Barlow has done it, Johnny Briggs three times, Len Hopwood, Jack Ikin, Mike Watkinson and, obviously, Hartley.
Lancashire have not lost a Championship away game in Gloucestershire since 1995 at Cheltenham. They have not lost an away game at Bristol since 1991.
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