Essex Men's Paul Walter has been named in the PCA's Men's Team of the Year for 2026.
Bringing together the strongest lineup from across the domestic game, the 2026 IG PCA Men's Team of the Year has been selected using the PCA MVP Rankings, powered by OFX.
Walter accumulated 388.75 MVP points across the season, scoring 1,255 runs and finishing fourth in the batting table with 325.27 batting points. He also enjoyed success with Manchester Super Giants, helping them to victory in The Hundred.
Seven debutants make the IG PCA Men’s Team of the Year, as Craig Overton captains a side full of multi-format talent. Overton, Joe Clarke, Kyle Abbott and Ricardo Vasconcelos return after previous selections, with Clarke and Abbott making their third and fourth appearances respectively.
Clarke and Overton join George Hill and Dan Lawrence as the quartet of nominees for the Toyota PCA Men’s Player of the Year to also make the Team of the Year.
Overton finished atop the MVP bowling table, alongside his PCA Men’s Domestic Overall MVP win, with 352.05 bowling points for Somerset and Trent Rockets. Clarke amassed the most batting points, racking up a mammoth 433.92 and finished as leading run-scorer in the top flight of the Rothesay County Championship with 1,288 runs.
Vasconcelos, Paul Walter and Ethan Bamber make the side having won silverware in 2026. Bamber finished as the league’s leading wicket-taker in Warwickshire’s successful Rothesay County Championship Division One campaign, while Walter ended The Hundred with 247 runs in just five games for Manchester Super Giants. Vasconcelos’ 439 runs played a significant part in Northamptonshire’s Vitality Blast win too.
Clarke is the only player to retain a place in the team from 2025 but sees a change in role, taking the gloves from John Simpson after a successful Hundred campaign keeping for Birmingham Phoenix.
The team was selected using the PCA MVP Rankings across all domestic competitions, with CricViz's algorithm assessing batting, bowling, fielding and match-defining contributions. The XI reflects the best-balanced side rather than simply the highest-ranked players, meaning strong performers such as Essex’s Matt Critchley and Warwickshire’s Rob Yates narrowly miss out.
The PCA Awards in partnership with Toyota takes place at Exhibition White City, London on Wednesday 30 September where the most prestigious awards ceremony in the game will celebrate the top performing players in international and domestic cricket.
1. Paul Walter (Essex and Manchester Super Giants)
2. Ricardo Vasconcelos (Northamptonshire)
3. Kiran Carlson (Glamorgan / London Spirit)
4. Joe Clarke (Nottinghamshire / Birmingham Phoenix)
5. Dan Lawrence (Surrey / SunRisers Leeds)
6. Martin Andersson (Derbyshire)
7. George Hill (Yorkshire)
8. Craig Overton (Somerset / Trent Rockets)
9. Liam Patterson-White (Nottinghamshire / SunRisers Leeds)
10. Ethan Bamber (Warwickshire)
11. Kyle Abbott (Hampshire)
Well done, Paul!
