Bargains to be had on the highest rated bats from manufacturers like Kookaburra, Gray-Nicolls and Gunn & Moore in 2025
Every year The Cricketer's Club Cricket Guide road tests the latest bats from manufactures like Gunn & Moore, Kookaburra and Gray-Nicolls and 'boutique' manufacturers like DKP.
These bats are among the best on the market for the upcoming season, and who doesn't like walking out of the pavilion with a brand new bit of kit?
Of course, new bats often come with a price tag but if you are patient at the crease, January is the perfect time to pick up a brand new bit of willow.
All those Best Bats Of 2024? They're available now in 2025 at a hefty discount, including "Gowers Bat," the Gray-Nicolls Powerspot.
We said: "Looks nice, plays better," the verdict of former England quick Alex Tudor, who still plays now and has an unbeaten 99 to his name in Test cricket. So, he knows what he's talking about when he sees a piece of willow.
We said: "Willow" was a UK number three hit for Taylor Swift in 2020, but quite whether this was the track one of our testers had in mind when he compared this Kookaburra offering to the American songstress is unclear. Editor Huw Turbervill made the comparison on the basis of the Stealth's "sleek design, nice light pick up and creamy middle". To quote another of Swift's hits, this instrument could well prove "trouble" for bowlers based on such claims.
One of the world's best female cricketers, Nat Sciver-Brunt is a Kookaburra ambassador. (Photo by Charle Lombard/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
We said: The famous Australian batmakers get Alex Tudor's seal of approval with the Kookaburra Ghost 3.1. He described it as a "good trustworthy bat" which "will only get better the more you use it".
We said: "Really good bat, light pick up, great middle and well built," said one student tester. You can't really ask for much more than that.
England's star man Harry Brook is a Gray-Nicolls ambassador. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
We said: "This is a really nice bat. It really depends on how you play, if you like to play a little bit later, wait on the ball for it to pop up, then it's great because the middles a bit higher up - when you connect with ball, that sounds amazing."
We said: Consistency was a key theme among the ratings for the Gladiator, which scored an average of 7.8 across three categories – pick up and feel, build quality, and performance.
We said: "The pick-up and feel was very good, the performance as well. The ball comes at the middle very nicely. It's a bit thicker to increase the punch but had a really nice feel to it.
We said: It is off the middle where the DSC really delivers in terms of power; if you can connect with good timing the ball can really fly.
We said: Build quality, thickness of the blade, and weight were all viewed as positives, as was the traditional, throwback design.
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