Somerset will begin the defence of their Vitality Blast crown on Friday when they host Hampshire Hawks in Taunton, with the reigning champions chasing a piece of history no side has managed since the tournament began in 2003. A win this summer would make Somerset the first team to defend the T20 Blast title and extend a run that has already carried them to three championships, including last September’s record run-chase against Hampshire at Edgbaston.
That triumph put Somerset at the centre of a competition that has been fiercely difficult to repeat in. Fourteen counties have lifted the trophy since the Blast launched in 2003, but none have gone back-to-back. This year’s task begins under a trimmed format, with the 2026 campaign starting in one block before The Hundred, the group stage cut to 12 matches per side and the quarter-finals and Finals Day following directly in July.
Lewis Gregory said the club’s recent record has given them a platform to believe they can do what no other side has done. “We’ve been incredibly consistent over five, six, seven years now,” he told Radio Somerset.
The structure around them has changed as well. The competition has been slimmed down after a review of the white-ball domestic game led by the counties in consultation with the ECB and the PCA, with the aim of improving player welfare and sharpening the narrative around the tournament. The old groups of nine have gone, replaced by three groups of six split into north, central and south sections, as they were in 2020.
The path to the knockout stage is tighter too. The top two teams in each group will qualify, along with the best two third-placed sides, meaning every result in the 12-match group phase carries extra weight. There are also two County Championship rounds sandwiched into the middle of the T20 fixtures in mid-June, adding another layer to a schedule that leaves little room for error.
For Somerset, the target is simple even if the road is not. They know the history, they know the format, and they know Friday brings the first test of whether a side that has been one of the most reliable in the competition can turn consistency into something no team has yet achieved.
