Warwickshire County Cricket Club Captain Ed Barnard is relishing the opportunity to lead the Bears into the 2026 season, starting with the Rothesay County Championship opener against Surrey from 3-6 April.
The Bears start their red ball campaign at Edgbaston Stadium with the visit of Surrey and after a winter of hard work, club cricket overseas and franchise opportunities, the squad are fit and raring to go with high hopes for the season ahead.
It will be 30-year-old Barnard, who was last week named the 38th captain of Warwickshire, who will be looking to navigate the rollercoaster that is the Rothesay County Championship as he looks to position the Bears into a position to challenge for silverware.
“I think it’s been a long winter for everyone and we’ve had a really good build up now so it’s always this time you get really excited and just eager to get going.
“I think when you’re involved at Warwickshire, silverware is always the end goal. There’s lots of stuff within that but there’s no difference this year. We feel like we’ve got the squad to compete in all three formats.
“Ultimately we’re hoping we’re lifting some sort of trophy at the end of the year but within that we’ve got to take it a game at a time. We’ve got some really exciting youngsters as well, we want lads going on to recreate what Jacob’s done and go and play international cricket and do well on the international stage. I think that’s a big goal for us as well.”
Barnard was the Bears’ top run scorer in 2025, amassing 922 runs across the County Championship season, and he will be looking to lead by example in the season ahead after a strong winter.
“I feel good, I’ve managed to get away and play a bit of cricket in Australia so that was nice and I’ve got this new role now which adds a little bit to the workload, but I’m just itching to get going and hopefully I can score as many runs as I can and take a few wickets as well.
“I feel very honoured. I think I’ve already said that you look down the list of names that have captained this club and it’s a pretty special list so it’s quite humbling to be part of that.
“I’m not the loudest in the dressing room. I’ll speak when I feel like stuff needs to be said but I’ll just try and stay calm on the pitch and lead through my actions so yeah hopefully I can take us forward and we can be successful this year.”
The Bears head into the season with a fully fit squad and a bowling attack which will likely be the envy of many of their opponents, with the full-time additions of Jordan Thompson and Nathan Gilchrist being joined by the returning Keith Barker from Hampshire and Chris Woakes following his retirement from international cricket.
That quartet complements the existing seam attack of Michael Booth, Ethan Bamber, Olly Hannon-Dalby, Beau Webster and Barnard himself, meaning the captain has plenty of options when it comes to team selection.
“I think the main thing for me is just the excitement around the squad, the amount of players we’ve got fit and available at the minute and the quality they’re showing has just given me some headaches for selection.”