England and Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson has announced his retirement from first-class cricket. Dawson said the decision was taken to prolong his career in white-ball formats with his county Hampshire.
Dawson was playing in the County Championship in England, before missing his team’s last match due to injury. Dawson is a right-handed batsman and bowls left-arm orthodox spin.
Liam Dawson ignored for Test against New Zealand
Dawson’s announcement comes just days after he was not selected for England’s upcoming home Test series against New Zealand. Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir and Jacob Bethel were preferred as spin-bowling options over him. The team was selected by England’s new Australian selector, Marcus North.
The three-Test series against New Zealand will run from June 4 to June 29. This series will be part of the World Test Championship. New Zealand will also play a one-off Test against Ireland in late May before the series begins.
England will return to Test cricket for the first time since their Ashes defeat in Australia in January. New Zealand have also not played Test cricket since defeating West Indies at home in December.
Liam Dawson’s England career
So far, Dawson has played 4 Tests, 9 ODIs and 32 T20 matches for England between 2016 and 2026. He impressed on his Test debut, scoring an unbeaten 66 against India in Chennai in 2016, but the chances never really came.
Dawson played two more Tests against South Africa at home in 2017, but had to wait eight years for his fourth Test cap. Dawson last played Test cricket against India in Manchester in July 2025.
His retirement from first-class cricket meant that Dawson would end his Test career with 110 runs at a batting average of 22 and 8 wickets at a bowling average of 54.75.
Dawson also made his international debut in the other two formats in 2016. But even among them his career remained sporadic. He played one match in 2016, two matches in 2018, three matches in 2022 and then three more matches in 2026.
Earlier this year, he was recalled for the ODI series against Sri Lanka. In 3 matches, he took 4 wickets but batted only once and scored only two runs. Overall, in his 9-match ODI career, he has scored 65 runs at a batting average of 10.83 and taken 9 wickets at a bowling average of 44.77. Despite this sporadic career, Dawson was a part of England’s 2019 ODI World Cup-winning team.
However, T20I was Dawson’s most productive format for England. In 32 matches, he scored 79 runs at a strike rate of 114.49, but also took 32 wickets at an economy rate of 7.76. Dawson was a semi-regular in T20Is between 2016 and 2018, before making a comeback in 2022.
Then, with the England selectors eyeing the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka this year, Dawson has penciled in another return to T20I form in 2025. It remains to be seen whether England retain him in white-ball cricket.
Liam Dawson’s Hampshire career and retirement details
Dawson represented Hampshire in over 200 first-class matches in the County Championship. In his overall first-class career, Dawson scored 10,848 runs at an average of 51.79 with 18 centuries, and took 380 wickets with the ball at an average of 32 and 15 five-wicket hauls.
With Hampshire, Dawson won six white-ball trophies, including three in T20s. He has also represented various T20 franchises around the world.
“This was not an easy decision, but I felt the time was right,” Dawson said in a statement released by Hampshire. “I am proud to have represented Hampshire for so long and look forward to continuing in white-ball cricket.”
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