Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis won the Yorkshire members’ player-of-the-year award for 2025 alongside Ami Campbell, who won the women’s equivalent. Both are in Australia this winter, Revis with the Lions and Campbell playing club cricket in Sydney for Gordon CC.
Matthew Revis has landed in Australia today relishing his first taste of England Lions duty and delighted with the contributions for Yorkshire which have helped the emerging and exciting all-rounder get there.
Revis, 23, was the county’s members’ player-of-the-year for 2025, largely due to the fact he scored 766 runs from 11 matches in the Rothesay County Championship.
He posted three mid-summer centuries in succession, two in home victories over Essex and Sussex and one against the defending champions Surrey. His superb run of form was kicked off with an unbeaten 93 in a draw away at champions-to-be Nottinghamshire in late June.
It was absolutely no surprise when the call came for the Burley-in-Wharfedale product to join a Lions squad which will be based in Perth and then Brisbane and will shadow England’s senior Test squad as they prepare for the Ashes.
Revis is the only Yorkshire player in the Lions squad, with George Hill unfortunate not to join him. Fellow all-rounder Hill, meanwhile, will represent an England side at this weekend’s Hong Kong Sixes event.
Former White Rose fast bowler Matthew Fisher, however, is with the Lions Down Under. Both Revis and Fisher could line up together in a warm-up game against the Test team at Perth’s picturesque Lilac Hill ground (November 13-15) before more red-ball fixtures against a Cricket Australia XI at the same venue and Australia A at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
Picture by John Clifton/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis celebrates getting to his century against Surrey at Scarborough this summer.
The tour, overseen by head coach Andrew Flintoff, concludes after the final match, which runs from December 5-8. The Lions left for Perth yesterday.
Revis said: “I’m very proud. It was very surreal. I got the call on the night of day two against Durham at Headingley at the end of the season.
“I was in bed actually, and I got a FaceTime audio call from an unknown number. Not knowing who it was, I let it ring out and then checked the number and realised it was Fred having been with him in the Hundred.
“So, yeah, I was really happy.”
He continued: “I had that very good month from the end of June and through into July.
“I was a bit frustrated I couldn’t finish the season the same way, but it was definitely a good summer for me.”
Picture by Michael Steele/Getty Images. Andrew Flintoff is leading the Lion’s tour of Australia as head coach.
During that mid-season run of red-ball form with the bat – scores of 93 not out, 150, 110 not out and 152 not out in five innings – almost everything he touched turned to gold.
“It all kind of stemmed from that 93 at Trent Bridge,” he reflected. “And the Surrey game at Scarborough, in particular, was a pleasing one.
“Against Essex at York, we’d obviously lost a few wickets and myself and Coady came together when we were under a bit of pressure. I remember not thinking about technique. It was just about how could we put pressure back on them.”
Revis’s campaign was all the more impressive given the fact it came off the back of a disrupted winter due to his recovery from a back stress fracture suffered late in the 2024 summer.
“It was my first big injury, and the future was pretty uncertain,” he said.
“So to do it with the bat – and with my bowling hopefully still to come – it certainly settles you down a bit.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis on the attack against Surrey at Scarborough.
On winning the members’ POTY award, he went on: “They’re the people who watch you week in and week out, showing their support. They see you at your best but also on your bad days and how you bounce back. That was also something that I was very proud of.”
Revis has travelled to Australia to work once again with legendary all-rounder Flintoff, his coach with the Northern Superchargers in August and one of the Sedbergh School graduate’s cricketing heroes.
He said: “Fred is someone I’ve looked up to since I was young and the kind of player I aim to be like.
“He said to me during the Hundred, ‘Look, I know where you’re batting is at the moment, but I really feel like we can take your bowling to the next level’.
“Hopefully that’s what can happen this winter.”
The Lions have been training at Loughborough in recent weeks before their clash with the Test squad in 10 days’ time.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis could line up against Joe Root in an Ashes warm-up match at Perth later this month.
It might not actually be the best thing for English Cricket if the Lions went on and won that game!
“Yeah,” laughed Revis, who spent the winter before last playing grade cricket on the Gold Coast. “That will certainly be an interesting game to be a part of. I’m not really sure how that will play out.
“But it could be interesting if we turn them over and a few newspaper articles start flying around.
“I can’t wait to get started. It’s going to be good to work with new coaches and see what they have to offer. Neil Killeen as bowling coach, for one. You can just take little nuggets from everyone.
“I’m always looking to get better, and to experience new conditions will certainly help.”
And as for an Ashes prediction, Revis added: “I think it’s going to be an unbelievable series, and I think we will pip them. I’m going to say 3-1.”
