Livingstone named Lancashire captain for 2023 T20 Blast

Liam Livingstone will captain Lancashire in the 2023 T20 Blast - with his England white-ball skipper Jos Buttler in the ranks for the majority of the season.

Livingstone spent a single season as Lancashire's all-format club captain as a 24-year-old in 2018 but stepped down after struggling for form as the club were relegated from Division One of the County Championship.

"I think I was a very different person and player back then," Livingstone told LancsTV. "I think my experience around the world over the last couple of years will obviously make things a little bit different for me, and we've got a lot of players to bounce ideas off so it certainly won't just be me making all the decisions.

"We've got a really good squad. I don't think it's too difficult a job: we've got a lot of experience, we've got more experience coming back in - hopefully Jos in the next couple of games. I don't think it's a difficult task. We've got a lot of people to bounce ideas off and hopefully the team should pretty much captain itself anyway - it's just a few decisions here and there."

Livingstone will deputise for club captain Keaton Jennings, who sustained a hamstring injury while playing in the Championship last month. "Handing Liam the reins for this summer's Blast gives us some consistency and allows Keaton to focus fully on his recovery," Glen Chapple, Lancashire's head coach, said.

Lancashire played in the opening game of the Blast season against Derbyshire on Saturday, winning by four wickets. They initially named Dane Vilas as captain when announcing their squad, but left Vilas out of the side altogether to accommodate Daryl Mitchell and Colin de Grandhomme as their two overseas players and were instead led by veteran batter Steven Croft.

Buttler, Livingstone and Phil Salt all returned from the IPL this weekend but Buttler will take a short break before returning to the Lancashire set-up on June 1, when they play Yorkshire at Headingley. He is due to play 10 group games for Lancashire this season - more than he has managed across the last five years combined - as well as any knockout fixtures, having dropped out of England's Test set-up and with no clash between the Blast and England's white-ball fixtures this season.

"I'm really looking forward to pulling on the Red Rose once again and representing Lancashire Lightning in this summer's Vitality Blast," Buttler said in a press release.

"To have the opportunity to play so many matches in this year's Blast is really exciting for me and it's a chance to really help the team after coming so close in last year's final."

Lancashire's next Blast fixture is against Leicestershire on Thursday afternoon.