Gloucestershire have lost their two most prolific County Championship bowlers plus a reigning Vitality Blast winner as county rivals continue to pick off their out-of-contract players.
Ajeet Singh Dale, their leading wicket taker in the Championship this season with 25 at 36.2 runs apiece, will move to Lancashire at the end of the season while Zaman Akhter – 20 at 43.4 – has agreed to join Essex.
And Josh Shaw, who took 16 wickets in nine Twenty20 appearances this summer, is switching to Somerset, the club he helped Gloucestershire defeat in last year’s Edgbaston final.
Their scheduled departures are part of an extraordinary exodus from Bristol at the end of a season that began with 14 of their squad in the final months of their existing deals.
Since county cricket’s transfer window opened on June 1 – the date from which other clubs are permitted to approach soon-to-be free agents – highly rated 20-year-old Archie Bailey has signed for Durham while two more homegrown seamers Tom Price and Dominic Goodman will play for Sussex in 2026.
Such high levels of interest in members of the Gloucestershire attack will be a surprise to keen observers of the Championship tables, given that the club finished 17th out of 18 last season and have won just once in 10 Division Two fixtures this time around.
Ajeet Singh Dale (left) and Zaman Akhter (17) are both leaving Gloucestershire as part of a mass exodus
Fellow seamer Josh Shaw is also off, with the 29-year-old joining neighbours Somerset
But the bleeding might not end there, with former South Africa paceman Marchant de Lange, 34 – who managed just five overs against Lancashire in his first Championship outing in three months last week due to hamstring tendonitis – on the verge of a return to Glamorgan, amid interest from Somerset and Essex.
Gloucestershire have moved to offset some of their losses in personnel by taking Will Williams, 32, from Lancashire in what is effectively a swap deal for Dale. New Zealander Williams has played here as a local on a British passport since 2022, but was marooned on 99 first-class wickets for the club when he was dropped to the second XI earlier in the season.
They are also welcoming Craig Miles back from Warwickshire on a three-year deal, and will use the overseas market for bowlers to replenish their stocks for next season.
Somerset have signed Yorkshireman Shaw predominantly with white-ball cricket in mind, but after losing a trio of seamers themselves in Ben Green and Josh Davey (both Leicestershire) and Kasey Aldridge (Durham), opportunities could present themselves across all formats.
Rivals do battle for Bashir
It was hoped that England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir’s protracted move away from Somerset would be completed by the end of the Test series versus India, but the fractured finger he suffered at Lord’s caused a delay – as there are now question marks over whether the ECB offer him a one or two-year central contract this autumn.
A two-year ECB deal would make him attractive to a wider pool of clubs, as they would effectively get a player for free until 2028, but his record of 18 County Championship career wickets at 84.1 runs each, even given that he is only 21, make taking him on anything longer than a two-year deal more of a gamble.
As things stand, he appears destined for a move to the West Midlands, with Warwickshire facing competition from Worcestershire.
The Pears have already committed to a long-term spin investment for their Twenty20 cricket, sealing a three-year deal for Pakistan’s Usama Mir, who topped their batting and bowling averages in the 2023 competition.
Shoaib Bashir’s fractured finger is delaying the ECB’s decision over the length of his next central contract
Worcestershire are locked in to Usama Mir (right) for their T20 spin bowling options
Essex’s need for speed
Essex remain keen on another bowler to follow Akhter to Chelmsford, and in addition to De Lange have considered ex-England man Jake Ball, who has been loaned out twice by Somerset this summer, and Durham youngster Mitchell Killeen.
They face competition for Ball’s signature from Kent, for whom he played two matches in May.
Kent bringing the band back together
Although Kent are losing Nathan Gilchrist to Warwickshire, they have enjoyed a good month off the field, surprisingly persuading Tawanda Muyeye to stay for at least two more seasons despite Division One clubs Yorkshire and Hampshire circling. All-rounder Joey Evison has agreed new terms to remain in Canterbury too.
Kent are also confident of welcoming back former captain Sam Northeast, who missed Glamorgan’s recent victory over Kent in Cardiff last week on paternity leave, and Matt Milnes.
Nineteen of Northeast’s 34 first-class hundreds were scored for his boyhood club while Milnes earned his move to Yorkshire three years ago on the back of 124 wickets in 37 four-day matches.
Sam Northeast is on the brink of returning to Kent, where he made 19 first-class hundreds from 2007 to 2017 – captaining the club in his final two seasons
Hampshire seize on Notts uncertainty
The vultures are circling Nottinghamshire pair Joe Clarke and Haseeb Hameed, who are still yet to renew terms at the Championship title chasers – and the delay is understood to be caused by the uncertainty over head coach Peter Moores’ future.
In 10 years under Moores, Nottinghamshire have won two Twenty20 titles and a one-day cup, and are second, one point behind champions Surrey, with four rounds of the Championship remaining.
Former England head coach Moores turns 63 later this year, but his love of coaching remains undimmed, as highlighted by him extending his spell with Melbourne Stars by two further winters. He is also in demand with other T20 teams around the world, and is expected to add another overseas posting to his CV in 2025-26.
Aware of the situation, Hampshire have made a lucrative offer to club captain Hameed, whose 900 runs at an impressive strike rate of 61 have been integral to Nottinghamshire’s surprise challenge at the summit.
Joe Clarke has yet to sign a new Nottinghamshire deal and it is believed his uncertainty is linked to the future of head coach Peter Moores (right)
Hampshire have made a lucrative offer for Notts club captain Haseeb Hameed
Meanwhile, the Outlaws’ Germany international all-rounder Matthew Montgomery, restricted to one Championship appearance but a forceful presence in their white-ball teams, is moving down the A52 to Derbyshire, effectively inheriting Samit Patel’s role as a top-six option who bowls spin.
Forty-year-old Patel – who holds the all-time record for most appearances in the Vitality Blast and is in its top 10 for both runs and wickets – left the Falcons at the end of the north group stage, two years after moving from Notts himself.
Yorkshire eye new batsman
Yorkshire are chasing a batsman, having lost out on Zimbabwean-born Muyeye in addition to making substantial offers for Dale and Akhter.
They have sanctioned an exit, though, with Jonny Tattersall, the wicketkeeper-batsman who captained them to promotion 10 months ago, adding to a Leicestershire recruitment drive for 2026 that could yet take in another top-order player.
