Will the results of the Hundred have any effect on the way England approach the coming series against Sri Lanka?
Hardly. One unsavoury fact the publicity agents will want to keep far from supporters’ minds is: England are likely to win every one of the six games played. SL are ranked eighth in the world for a reason.
It’s fine that they have been offered a first-ever bilateral tour of England, but one tiny detail – the lack of a test match – tells us all we need to know. Despite advocates telling us how they long to see more tests, the gap in strength between the two nations is the best reason for avoiding one.
The Hundred’s influence on the England squad
One thing’s for sure: Jon Lewis paid scant attention to the course of the 2023 Hundred when posting his two squads. A reminder:
T20: Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt
ODI: Heather Knight (captain) Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Nat Sciver-Brunt
In these days of instant public reaction, it’s no surprise that that the two lists aroused debate, and that’s a polite word for disbelief. ‘Wot, no Tammy?’ was a repeated cry of anguish. She had just scored 118 for Welsh Fire in what seemed like a dozen balls (in fact it was 61), but her name is restricted to the longer format. So there we can look forward to her scoring around 250 in the fifty overs. The staff will lay on extra oxygen supplies.
Returning closer to reality, Beaumont is grateful to Lewis for setting her targets, to improve her scoring-rate in T20s. Now in her thirties, she has proved it is possible to add significantly to an established talent.
Not including her in the T20 group gives more players the chance to stake a place in the World Cup in Bangladesh next year.
Other complaining voices dislike the use of rotation (‘she needs a rest’). I cannot see any justification for that view: top-level cricket makes severe demands on cricketers, and in my view cricket stands high in the list of cruel sports. Failure of any sort can have a debilitating effect.
So the absence of Sophie Ecclestone and Sophia Dunkley (total) and Nat Sciver-Brunt and Beaumont (partial) strikes me as sensible.
Those of us who’ve never taken charge of a national squad might ponder altering the two squads in the light of later events. But that would not do anyone any favours. Both Fifteens are quite strong enough to see off the Sri Lankans, and each time they play, four squad members will at best be acting as drinks monitors or iced-towel suppliers.
Current form – The Batters
There are plenty of players with points to prove: Even Heather Knight has not been in top form in the Hundred; captaincy is her calling card. Alice Capsey hasn’t produced anything like the runs her fans had hoped from her (77); at the time of writing her off-spin has produced one wicket.
Maia Bouchier is returning the results that her advocates have predicted for years. She provides a more orthodox and elegant approach to batting than Dunkley, whose place she takes for the present. Danni Wyatt continues to amaze with her batting power and fielding accuracy. She still annoys with her fallibility at the crease, but that’s the price you pay for her uneven talent.
The Bowlers
Freya Kemp’s potential is undoubted, but her back trouble – always a worry with a young fast bowler – hasn’t allowed her to bowl in the Hundred. If her medical advisors remain concerned, her batting will prove she has much in her favour: she becomes that rarest of beasts in the English menagerie, a left-hander. Even the young left-arm quick, Mahika Gaur, can’t offer in that respect. And Kemp, who is restricted to the T20 set, can strike a really long ball.
As for Gaur, her performances have advanced as her mentors must have hoped. It’s noticeable how often her early deliveries find the inside edge of top-order bats.
The selectors now have quick and very quick bowlers at their disposal. The problem is to know when and how often to employ them, and in which combinations. Kemp’s return to fitness will only add to the competition. Knight knows why she was so loath to offer Lauren Filer more of the ball for London Spirit, but the rest of us don’t. She hardly needs to be cared for like a still growing teenager: she is older than Lauren Bell. She has proved the fastest of all The Hundred bowlers this summer.
Half of the subcontinent’s male population cannot understand why Issy Wong doesn’t open the bowling in every England match, in whichever format. But Lewis is in a far better position to judge that matter.
It was sad seeing Kate Cross having to forsake her Red Rose roots for the White Rose, but that’s The Hundred for you. She continues as the doyenne of the quicker bowlers, a role she is admirably suited to.
Both Danni Gibson and Bess Heath have the chance to confirm their places, but they know the competition is stiff. Heath is unlikely to be offered the gloves, unless Lewis thinks Amy Jones needs a break. Otherwise she must await her opportunity to make a statement as a hard-hitting batter.
Gibson answers the need for an all-rounder who can whack the ball and bowl at lively pace.
The spinners, Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn, will face batters far more used to their types, but should be able to reap their reward. Both have produced memorable ‘sets’ of five, as Beth Barrett-Wild insists we should call the totally innocent ‘over’.
Amy Jones continues to show the world how to keep wicket. Ideally she would like to add a pile of confident runs to her store; she is well capable of them. She’s been playing in a losing team, Birmingham Phoenix, which must take the stuffing out of the stoutest performer.
Sri Lanka
Top scorer Chamari Athapaththu with a mountainous 2,484 runs over a 14-year career. But after her the batting records tail off worryingly.
In nine T20 matches against England Sri Lanka have yet to register a win.
In ODIs they have achieved one win in seventeen, and that was a decade ago.
They haven’t yet published a touring team, but in their most recent bilateral series, at home to New Zealand in July, they did well to win two matches. These were due largely to Athapaththu, who scored a blistering 80 off 48 balls to see her side through to a 7-wicket victory. Then in the third T20 in Galle an even more remarkable 140* out of 196-2 off a mere 80 balls (13 x 4; 9 x 6!). Once England have got rid of her…
Their last encounter with Sri Lanka was four years ago in Colombo. Among the debutants was Linsey Smith, who has struck me as one of the most dependable of all the slow bowlers on show in The Hundred.
With so much competition for places in the England squads, it’s a shame that an A-team series couldn’t be tacked on, as with the Aussies this year. Along with the absent test, that’s another sign of the imbalance of strength between the two nations.
The show begins in 12 days time.
