Player Profile

Fledgling left-arm spinner Charlie Barnard made his first-team debut for the Red Rose county in 2024, catching the eye with eight wickets in seven appearances in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, including a best of 3-47.

That came in a pulsating three-run win over Worcestershire at Emirates Old Trafford eight at the end of a difficult campaign for the team.

Defending a 238-target, Barnard excelled through the middle of the innings to put the skids under the Pears, removing their captain Jake Libby and former Red Rose batter Rob Jones.

Having removed Ethan Brookes to leave the visitors at 90-4, they did fight back to set up a tense finish. Ultimately, and thankfully, Barnard’s intervention was key and contributed to a victory.

Less than a week earlier, and still in his teens, the Tameside twirler had signed his maiden professional contract with Lancashire.

Heading into the 2025 summer, Barnard is 20-years-old. He will no doubt be targeting breakthroughs in the Rothesay County Championship and the Vitality Blast.

He was born in Ashton-Under-Lyne and played age-group cricket for both Cheshire and Lancashire. He is a product of the famed Academy at Emirates Old Trafford, where he has been for the last three years.

Barnard has played club cricket for Newton, Alderley Edge and, at present, Hyde.

Barnard represented the England Under 19s at the 50-over World Cup in South Africa early last year and has played senior National Counties cricket for Cheshire in 2022-2024.

For the Under 19s, he claimed 15 wickets in 11 appearances at home and abroad in 2023 and 2024.

He debuted for Lancashire’s twos in a June 2022 Second XI Championship clash with Warwickshire at Chester, claiming two wickets in each innings of a defeat.

Just short of a couple of months later, in an Under 18s three-day Championship win against Derbyshire, he took 12 wickets. That included remarkable figures in the second innings of 18-9-22-8.

A memorable period in his career continued.

At the end of that summer, he returned match figures of 10-133 in a Second XI Championship defeat against Yorkshire at Blackpool.

His first-innings figures of 6-42 remain his best at that level despite him claiming another second-team six-for in 2024.