MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire vs. Kent, Rothesay County Championship
Lancashire v Kent
Rothesay County Championship, Division Two
Friday June 12 - Monday June 15, 2026, 11am
Blackpool CC, Stanley Park
Lancashire face a key weekend fixture in their bid for promotion.
The Championship returns for a fortnight, sandwiched in between the first and second half of the Vitality Blast T20 competition.
Lancashire’s matches are against Kent at Blackpool and then Derbyshire at Chesterfield, and the first is a clash between two counties who sit fourth and third in the Division Two table respectively.
Kent are third with 77 points; six matches, two wins, a defeat and three draws. Lancashire, meanwhile, are fourth on 75 points; two wins, two defeats and two draws.
League leaders Durham have 105 points and second-placed Northamptonshire 85.
The Red Rose are within striking distance, and a good result by the seaside will do wonders for their promotion push.
Liam Livingstone will feature in his first red-ball match since December 2022, when he played his one and only Test Match for England against Pakistan in Rawalpindi.
Australian overseas batter Ben McDermott is also available, while captain Sir James Anderson has recovered from the calf injury which ruled him out of much of the recent Blast block.
Opposition
Kent ended the last block of Championship matches impressively with two wins and a draw to elevate themselves into the thick of the promotion picture.
Coached by former England white-ball captain Adam Hollioake, they are captained by experienced batter Daniel Bell-Drummond.
They have just signed Bangladeshi seamer Hasan Mahmud on a short-term overseas deal to supplement Keith Dudgeon, the South African seam-bowling all-rounder who has been with them all year.
Sam Northeast and Matt Milnes have returned to Kent for this season following moves away, and - promotion or not - they will almost certainly improve on a bottom-placed finish in Division Two last summer.
Last season, they only won two matches all campaign. They have already matched that haul with eight games still to play in 2026.
Opener Zak Crawley, a fall guy from England’s disastrous Ashes winter, has played all six Championship matches so far but with a best of only 44.
Opposition player to watch
Yes, Chris Benjamin (450 runs) has got almost twice as many runs as Zak Crawley this summer, the opener with only 226 from six Championship matches to his name.
But we all know Crawley’s quality. A 28-year-old with five Test centuries, including a score of 189 against Australia at Emirates Old Trafford in 2023, he will surely come good at some point soon.
Let’s just hope it’s not this weekend on the Fylde Coast.
Crawley has been replaced at the top of England’s order by Durham batter Emilio Gay.
But helping his home county to promotion if it can be achieved would soften that blow significantly.
Previous meeting
Lancashire and Kent drew both Championship matches last season, including one at Blackpool in late June.
The other, which we will concentrate on, was at Canterbury in early September.
A rain-affected game saw much of the final day ruined.
Lancashire had been set a 303-run victory on day four and could only reach 138-3 from 28 overs before the players were forced off.
Mitch Stanley had a superb game with match figures of 11-180; five in the first innings and six in the second.
Speedster Stanley’s five bowled Kent out for 293 late on day one after they had elected to bat, Ben Compton’s opening 77 leading the way.
Lancashire responded with 284 thanks largely to 80 from opener Luke Wells. Matts Quinn and Parkinson claimed four wickets apiece with seam and spin.
Amazingly, Kent were then bowled out for 293 once more. Opener Jaydn Denly top-scored with 74 having come in as a concussion replacement for Tawenda Muyeye, while Stanley claimed his six-for.
Muyeye and Compton had been involved in a nasty mid-pitch collision in the first innings, with the former developing concussion symptoms overnight and into day two. Compton had to bat at 11 in the second innings because of a wrist injury.
Lancashire then made a decent start to their chase, only for rain to deny both teams the chance to get over the line.
What they said
Liam Livingstone is looking forward to the next fortnight of Championship cricket at Blackpool and then Chesterfield, with the Red Rose also facing Derbyshire next weekend.
Livingstone’s red-ball career - by his own admission - looked like it was over.
He jarred his knee in the field on day two of his Test debut in Rawalpindi, his ability to impact the game severely hampered as a result. Since, then, he has forged a career as one of the world’s best white-ball specialist.
But he is loving his cricket at the moment, loving being back with Lancashire, and he’s desperate to help out a team struggling with some unavailability issues.
“I don't think I'd be playing if everybody was fit, to be perfectly honest,” said Livingstone. But Jimmy asked. And if I was ever going to play for anyone, Jimmy and Crofty are probably my top two people. So hopefully I can try and help out.
“It's very different. It's something I haven't done for a long while. So what have I got to lose?
“The last time I played, I had a really good start to my career.
“I don't really know how it's going to go. I haven't had loads of time to prepare for it. I'll have one training session on Thursday and straight in Friday, but I can't stand here and say I'm really prepared for it. But it is what it is.
“I didn’t think I’d ever play (a red-ball game for Lancashire) again, no.
“I just play so much cricket these days. Sometimes you've just got to get away, got to spend some time at home. I haven't seen my wife as much as I probably should have since we got married in October.
“But it’s a challenge I want to try and take on, start with these next two games and see what’s what.
“You never know what happens. I may not get picked up in the IPL next year and I can play the full start of the season. I don’t know. I won't look too far ahead, but I'll start with these two games.”
How’s Stat!
Liam Livingstone will play his 64th first-class match, and in the previous 63 he has scored 3,085 runs at an average of 38.08 with a best of 224. He has also taken 43 wickets with a best of 6-52.
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