Cricket Bat Willow Guide: Types, Grades and Grains

Every cricket bat blade is willow, and the Laws of Cricket say it must be solely wood, but the willow itself comes in two very different kinds, is graded by how it looks rather than how it plays, and from this season can be glued together from more than one piece. This guide explains what you are actually buying when a label says English willow, Kashmir willow, Grade 1, butterfly or laminated, and which of those things changes the way a bat performs.

What Cricket Bat Willow Is

Bat willow is a specific tree, Salix alba var. caerulea, grown in plantations on wet ground in the east and south of England. Gray-Nicolls, who run their own willow operation, say the tree is grown for fifteen to twenty years before it is felled, cut into rounds roughly the length of a blade, split into clefts, air-dried for around six weeks and then pressed to strengthen the fibres and improve the rebound. That pressing is the step that turns a plank into a bat, and it is worth remembering, because it means the grower and the maker both have a hand in how the finished bat plays.

Law 5.3.2 of the Laws of Cricket requires that the blade consists solely of wood, and Law 5.7 sets the maximum size: no more than 38 inches long overall, with a blade no wider than 4.25 inches, no deeper than 2.64 inches and with edges no thicker than 1.56 inches. Only the largest senior bats get near those limits, but they are why a modern bat cannot simply be made bigger.

English Willow and Kashmir Willow

The same species grown in the Kashmir valley produces a harder, denser timber. Makers are blunt about the difference: Chase describe Kashmir willow as by nature much harder than English willow and say Kashmir bats do not reach a comparable level of performance, and Gray-Nicolls recommend Kashmir willow for juniors starting out with a soft ball. What Kashmir willow offers is price. In our range a Kashmir willow bat starts a little over £30, and it needs little preparation before it is used.

You will often read that Kashmir willow is more durable. No maker says that, and we no longer do either. It is harder, which means it marks less in the early weeks, but hardness and lifespan are not the same thing. If you play hard-ball cricket regularly, English willow is the right choice. Our English willow vs Kashmir willow comparison goes through the trade-offs ball by ball.

Willow Grades Explained

A grade describes how a cleft looks. Gray-Nicolls put it plainly in their own buying guide: the higher up the scale you go, the cleaner the willow will be and the straighter the grain, and the appearance markings that separate the grades do not affect performance but do influence price. Chase use a four-point scale with the same logic, with Grade 1 reserved for straight, even grains and no blemishes on the face, Grade 2 allowing some irregular grain and slight blemishes, Grade 3 showing a definite irregular pattern and cosmetic marks, and Grade 4 taking the knots and butterfly stains.

Three things follow from that:

• Scales are not comparable across brands. One maker's Grade 1 can look like another's Grade 2. Gray-Nicolls label their top tiers by the share of willow that qualifies, with Legend at the top one per cent, Platinum the top five and Silver the top ten. Newbery call their top tier Pro Grade, again the top one per cent of clefts, and have moved to a simple numbered scale for 2026. Kookaburra do not publish grade definitions at all, so any Kookaburra grade description you read online is retailer copy.
• Grade does not change the pressing. Gray-Nicolls state that all their bats are pressed in the same way, whatever the grade. A Grade 3 bat with a blemish on the face has had exactly the same work done to it as the pristine one next to it.
• Grade sets the price more than the performance. A top-tier bat from a major brand now costs between about £600 and £900 in our range, and reporting in February 2026 put bespoke Grade 1 prices at around £1,000. The jump from Grade 2 to Grade 1 buys you looks and a better chance of a lively cleft, not a guarantee.

If you are weighing two grades from the same maker, our guide to the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 willow shows what you get for the money.

What the Grains Tell You

The lines down the face are growth rings, so a bat with more, narrower grains came from an older tree and one with fewer, wider grains from a younger one. Makers tend to describe older, tighter-grained willow as performing well from new and younger, wider-grained willow as taking longer to reach its best, and some add that the wider-grained bat may last longer. That is the closest thing to a rule the industry has, and even the makers who state it hedge it. No maker claims that grain count predicts power, and none publishes a target number of grains for a given grade.

Grains and grade are also separate things. A Grade 1 bat can have six grains or twelve; what makes it Grade 1 is that they are straight, even and unblemished. Our cricket bat grains guide covers how to read them and why straightness matters more than the count.

Butterfly Stains, Heartwood and Bleaching

A butterfly stain is a dark, winged mark across the face, left by the tree's growth. Chase, who sell it as part of their Grade 4 range, say it does not affect the performance of the bat, and plenty of players seek out butterfly willow bats because they get full-pressed willow at a lower-grade price. Heartwood is the oldest timber at the centre of the trunk and shows as a slightly darker colour on one edge of the blade. Again, the maker's position is that it does not affect performance; it simply costs a cleft its top-grade label.

Bleaching is cosmetic too. Some makers bleach the face to give a uniform pale finish, and premium ranges are increasingly sold as unbleached so that the natural colour and grain show. Neither changes how the willow plays, but an unbleached face makes it easier to see what you are buying, which is why it matters when you are trying to spot a fake English willow bat.

Laminated and Hybrid Bats

This is the part of the willow story that changed in 2026. Until October, a blade made from more than one piece of wood was a junior-only bat under the Laws. The new edition of the Laws, in force since 1 October 2026, permits Type D bats, which may be laminated, in open-age cricket, with the level at which they can be used left to each national governing body. The MCC's reasoning is cost: a laminated blade can use up to three pieces of wood, so lower-quality willow can be glued behind a high-quality face, and after what the MCC describes as considerable testing it does not expect them to give a significant performance advantage.

Makers already sell adult bats built this way, with an English willow face bonded to a Kashmir willow or lower-grade back, typically between about £160 and £230. We do not currently stock them, and we have not found a published ECB position on where they can be used in English recreational cricket, so if you are tempted, ask your league before you buy. Our guide to the laminated bat law change has the detail.

Which Willow Should You Buy

• Soft-ball juniors and first-season beginners. Kashmir willow. It is cheap, needs no preparation and will not be outgrown before it wears out.
• Hard-ball juniors and adult club players. English willow, in whatever grade your budget allows once you have found a weight and pick-up you can control. Grade 2 and Grade 3 bats from the major makers sit between roughly £150 and £350 and are pressed the same as the top tier.
• Serious and representative players. Top-tier English willow, chosen in person for pick-up rather than for the cleanest face. Our players edition bats are where those clefts sit.

Whichever you choose, the willow is only half of it. Profile, pressing and handle decide how a bat feels, and two bats of the same grade and weight can feel nothing alike. That is why our cricket bat buying guide puts size and pick-up ahead of willow in the order of decisions, and why every English willow bat still needs knocking in before it meets a new ball.

FAQs: Cricket Bat Willow

What is Grade 1 English willow? The maker's top cosmetic tier: straight, even grains and a face free of blemishes. It is the best-looking willow, and because clean clefts are rare it is the most expensive, but makers press every grade the same way.

Is Grade 3 English willow any good? Yes. It carries irregular grain or visible marks that keep it out of the higher tiers, and it plays like English willow because it is English willow. For most club players it is the sensible buy.

Is Kashmir willow good for a hard ball? It will survive one, but makers position it for soft-ball and beginner cricket and say it does not perform like English willow. Once you are facing a hard ball regularly, move up.

How many grains should a cricket bat have? There is no right number. More grains mean an older tree, and the trade view is that older willow plays sooner while younger willow may last longer. Straight grains matter more than the count.

Are laminated cricket bats legal? Under the Laws of Cricket, yes in open-age cricket since 1 October 2026, as Type D bats. Whether your league allows them is set by the governing body for that competition, so check before buying.

Does a butterfly stain weaken the bat? No. It is a growth mark, and the makers who sell butterfly willow say it does not affect performance. It affects the grade and therefore the price.

Sources

Law 5 is published by the MCC at Lord's, including the Type D wording in force from 1 October 2026. Growing, drying and pressing details are from Gray-Nicolls, whose buying guide also supplies the grading quotes. Grade 1 pricing is reported by City AM, 3 February 2026. Chase's grading and Kashmir descriptions are from the maker's own grading pages.