A terrific twirler with a high ceiling
Dom Bess is a spin bowling all-rounder with 14 Test caps for England, and a Devonian who has made exactly 100 first-class career appearances to date.
Bess is a pugnacious cricketer – highly talented with ball and bat – and he is only 30 short of 300 first-class wickets.
The now 27-year-old joined Yorkshire on a four-year deal from the home comforts of Somerset, where he was struggling for regular opportunity with the presence of left-arm spinner Jack Leach in their squad.
His situation was best highlighted in May 2018 when he made his Test debut against Pakistan at Lord’s, only to be playing second-team cricket at Somerset just a few weeks later.
Bess has had a number of moments to savour for Yorkshire, whom he has captained in a few one-day matches.
Most recently, in 2024, he helped the county gain promotion to Division One of the Rothesay County Championship, taking 14 wickets and scoring 281 runs from six matches. He also signed a new two-year contract, committing him to Yorkshire until at least the end of 2026.
In 2021, his first full season with the county – he had two short loan spells in 2019, he returned superb match-winning County Championship hauls of 6-53 and 7-43 at Sussex and Northamptonshire.
However, he has also had his challenges. He missed out on Championship selection midway through 2023, and ended up going out on loan briefly twice to Warwickshire and back to Somerset.
But he returned to end the season encouragingly, including a career best 5-37 in a Metro Bank One-Day Cup win at Essex.
It was similar in 2024. Dan Moriarty’s arrival meant he had to beat bide his time for a Championship chance, but they ended up playing in tandem a couple of times at Headingley.
In the August draw against Middlesex, he claimed a determined 7-179 in a flat-track draw. In the only innings the visitors batted, he bowled a marathon 70.4 overs.
Ahead of the 2024 summer, he spent parts of his winter playing domestic cricket in Zimbabwe for the Southern Rocks, claiming 13 wickets in five first-class appearances added to scores of 46, 63, 56, 70 and 80. The majority came batting at three.
Ahead of 2025, he played winter club cricket in Sydney for Mosman.
Bess played his age-group cricket in the West Country and debuted for Somerset’s first team in a first-class friendly against Pakistan aged 18 in July 2016.
In early 2021, he took 17 wickets in three overseas Tests in Sri Lanka and India, including a Test best of 5-30 in the opening game of the series win over the former at Galle.
UPDATED: Feb 2025.
