New Gloucester captain Dan Brabham is banking on youth to help him rejuvenate the club this season.

Gloucester have struggled in recent years and the soon-to-be 28-year-old Brabham says the club will be “going in a brand new direction” in 2026.

“Seven of the XI will be under the age of 18,” said Gloucester-born Brabham, an opening batsman.

“They all deserve an opportunity to show what they can do. Three of them are in the county pathway, which is massive for a club like Gloucester.”

Gloucester flirted with relegation for much of last season in the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Premier League.

They won four of their final five completed league games at the end of 2025 to ensure they stayed up, and while Brabham is hoping to make a bright start to the new campaign – their opening game is at home to Chipping Campden on Saturday 2^nd May – he is also looking to the medium- and long-term.

“We’re looking to promote the youth because we want to be a sustainable club,” he explained.

“We want to protect the future and secure what we’ve got. If we win games this season we’ll stay up, but if we don’t we’ll rebuild because we will have given our young players the opportunity to play WEPL cricket.”

Brabham will be key to their hopes this season.

He left Gloucester to play for Tewkesbury at the start of  2025 but returned to his hometown club to play one game for them at the end of July.

It was against Thornbury 2nds and he made an unbeaten 134 as Gloucester chased down 230-9 with six wickets and 10 balls to spare.

Brabham’s football commitments – he’s a goalkeeping coach and a semi-professional player with Southern League Division One South champions Frome Town – restricted the amount of cricket he could play last season, but he’ll be available to Gloucester throughout the summer.

Brabham actually learned his cricket in Kent – he lived there from the age of seven to 19 – and used to open the batting with current England Test player Zak Crawley.

“We played for Homesdale,” he said. “In those days he couldn’t get the ball off the square, he was all arms and legs!”

Crawley has certainly discovered how to put bat to ball in recent years – albeit intermittently – and Brabham also likes to get his runs at a good pace.

“I like to try to get the ball off the square, although I have had to adapt my game and be a bit more conservative,” he said.

Gloucester scored the fewest runs in the 10-team division in 2025 and Brabham is hoping the arrival of South African all-rounder La Fras van Vuuren will give them a much-needed boost.

“He’s got a bit of class,” said Brabham. “He’s played for two years in north Wales.

“We need someone to be a clubman, someone to support the juniors, do the groundwork and get around the boys.”

Van Vuuren is a middle order batsman who also bowls off-spin and will work closely with Sam Winton, an Australian who will be the club’s head coach for the first half of the season.

Brabham and Winton are good friends and Brabham said: “He’ll help build the foundations.”

The likes of Luke Carr, Raju Devendran and Abhishekh Chidambaran have all committed to the club and will be key components moving forward, and Brabham continued: “We want to find a brand of cricket that works for us. We need to learn how to win games and enjoy playing together.”

Brabham has captained teams at youth level but this will be his first season as a skipper at senior level.

“I’m quite aggressive on the field,” he said. “I’ve played so much cricket and I’ve watched so much cricket, I’m a big student of the game.

“If I see an opportunity, I will exploit it. I like to have a plan but I’m not afraid to act on instinct.”