Hampshire sign batter Patel and all-rounder Hudson-Prentice ahead of 2027 season

Pace bowling all-rounder Fynn Hudson-Prentice and batter Rishi Patel will join Hampshire at the end of the 2026 season.

Hudson-Prentice, 30, has featured in over 100 matches for his native Sussex whilst Patel, 27, joins from Leicestershire, where he helped the Foxes gain promotion in 2025 and has scored over 3,500 runs for the club, with eight hundreds, since joining them in 2021.

Both players were capped by their respective counties in 2023.

Time is right

Hudson-Prentice has taken 196 wickets and scored more than 4,000 runs across all formats of the game, and helped Sussex gain promotion from Division Two in 2024.

He made his professional debut as a teenager in 2014 and played three seasons at Sussex before being released. He would then join Derbyshire in 2019 for three years, where he helped the club reach their first-ever T20 Finals Day, before returning to his home county in 2022.

Since returning to Sussex in 2022, Hudson-Prentice has taken 78 wickets in 49 Championship matches and has scored over 2,000 runs with 15 half-centuries.

Hudson-Prentice said: “I’ve loved my time at Sussex; playing for my boyhood club for the past five years has been an utter privilege, but I believe the time is right for a change.

“Hampshire is a big club and has got an exciting squad and group behind the scenes, and I’m really looking forward to working with Russell and the team over the next few years.”

His career-best score of 99 came for Derbyshire against Middlesex in 2019. In 19 matches for the East Midlands club, Hudson-Prentice claimed 44 wickets, with his best of 5/68 coming against 2025 County Champions Nottinghamshire.

In the One-Day Cup, Hudson-Prentice has taken 25 wickets in 19 matches and scored four fifties since re-joining Sussex and has taken 40 wickets in his Vitality Blast career.

Grateful

Rishi Patel started his career at Essex but joined Leicestershire in 2021. Since 2023, he has been one of the Foxes’ leading run-scorers, with over 3,000 Championship runs at an average of over 40.

His 658 runs, including two centuries, helped Leicestershire gain promotion to Division One of the County Championship for the first time since 2003.

Twin fifties for Patel in Leicestershire’s match against Yorkshire earlier this year helped the Foxes to their first win in the top flight in 23 years.

Patel said: “I’m really looking forward to joining Hampshire when the winter comes around. The club is ambitious and highly successful, especially in white-ball cricket, and I hope I can contribute to success in all formats in my time at the club.

“I will be forever grateful to Leicestershire for the opportunity and support they have given me, but it feels that now is the right time for me to move on at this stage in my career.”

In white-ball cricket, Patel has scored over 1,500 T20 runs and won the 2023 Metro Bank One-Day Cup when Leicestershire beat Hampshire by just two runs at Trent Bridge.

He has two T20 centuries to his name, coming against Durham in 2023 and Northamptonshire in 2024.

Delighted

Giles White, Director of Cricket, said: “We’re delighted to welcome both Rishi and Fynn to the Club. They are experienced, high-quality players who will add strength to our squad.

“Rishi has established himself as a consistent run scorer at the top of the order and will strengthen our batting line-up. Fynn has been a reliable performer with the ball over a number of seasons and also provides significant depth with the bat.

“Together, they will add quality, experience and balance to the squad, and we look forward to seeing them at the Utilita Bowl next summer.”

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