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You can sort through all sorts of numbers when discussing Surrey’s recent hold on the County Championship. There is the obvious one: three consecutive titles, a feat that had not been accomplished since Yorkshire’s run in the late-1960s. They have lost just one match at home across those three seasons, and the numbers on the accounts are pretty, too – though that is no guarantee of on-field success. But this one works best: of the 26 players they used in the championship last season, 16 have international caps, 13 with Test pedigree.
Dom Sibley watches the rotating cast come and go, be it the England red-ball lot who start their summers in south London or the Indian Premier League crew who return for its end. Sibley and Rory Burns were the only two ever-presents in Surrey’s 2024 campaign, their opening partnership, previously seen with England, kicking off a county batting lineup featuring Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith and Dan Lawrence.
“It’s an unbelievable side,” says Sibley. “You look around the dressing room, I don’t know how many international players we have in the squad. It drives the standards up and keeps everyone wanting to push harder. When you’re training with guys who are high quality, the young lads get up to that level quicker.”
There is a template to how they have done it in the last few years. A well-rotated, high-quality group of quicks get to work on a lively home surface, with no real need for a specialist spinner – despite the head coach being the former England off-spinner Gareth Batty.
“They’re not quite the same as the Oval pitches back in the day,” says Sibley. “But I’m happy to sacrifice a few runs off the average as long as we keep winning.”
Daniel Worrall, once of Australia and potentially England’s soon, is out in front with the ball, 52 wickets last year at 16.15, and clearly in possession of Test attributes. “He can bowl quick when he wants to,” says Sibley, who has watched closely from the slip cordon. “He can go through the gears, he can swing it. Even when the pitches are flat and the Kookaburra’s come out, he’s been a point of difference at times.”
Jordan Clark is their uncapped and vital all-rounder. “The fact he takes the new ball for us when we’ve got lads that play for England just shows how much of a high regard people hold him in here.”
Then there is Sibley himself, four years approaching since his last Test appearance but with his game undergoing a bit of a rebrand. The scrutiny of international cricket got to him by the end of his two-year stint with England, both mind and method worked over. He has been solid since making the switch back to his boyhood county from Warwickshire before the 2023 season, averaging 41.5 in the championship over two years, with three hundreds in 2024.
However, while known for his patience in the middle – and at times, judged harshly for it – Sibley is now giving it more of a whack, his presence in Surrey’s Blast team last summer ending a four-year absence from Twenty20 cricket. His first-class strike rate last year was 47, not electric but still a 10-point jump on the previous season.
“Last year, when I came back in the nets, I was like: ‘I’m just going to play shots,’” Sibley says. “‘I want to just have fun, try and enjoy it more.’ Having that bravery to be a bit more expansive in the nets and then keep being persistent with it has helped. Luckily that led to getting into the T20 team.”
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His match-winning 67 in the Blast quarter-final win over Durham was followed by a 36-ball 48 in the semi-final defeat by Somerset. Cue an opportunity in January with Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League. An eight-ball three on debut was quickly followed by an injury in training to end Sibley’s tournament, but he clearly wants to have a proper go at the short-form world and to change perceptions around his game.
“With me, it’s trying to break the stigma around me being a blocker,” Sibley says with a chuckle. “Luckily I got a few decent scores on TV games last year, which helps. When I played against Durham, my mates were sending me tweets, people saying that they’re serving hallucinogenic beers because I reverse-scooped someone for six.”
This liberated version of Sibley isn’t because England want aggression, it’s a response to where things were, a desire to enjoy time out in the middle. “I wouldn’t say the England environment has made me change my game,” he says. “I just needed to change it because it was not going well.”
When asked about international aspirations, he replies: “It’s not something I pine for, but at the same time it would be great to get another opportunity. But I wouldn’t say that I’m desperate for it. Just as much as doing that, I’d love to play in the leagues around the world.” The red-ball expert wants the white-ball high – that’s just how the game works now.
The championship will have to be Sibley’s focus for the next little while. Surrey’s season begins at Chelmsford on Friday, a fourth title in succession not at all unfeasible. Alec Stewart is no longer director of men’s cricket but is still surveying his empire in a stripped-back advisory role. Matt Fisher, from Yorkshire, and New Zealand’s Nathan Smith are fresh additions to the pace group, while you would expect Lawrence and Ben Foakes – both recent omissions from the England Test team – to play significant roles. Then there is Sibley, who may well thump a few through the covers.
