Charlotte Edwards has taken the safe step of announcing only the first squad to face the Indians. The fourteen for the five T20s are:
Em Arlott (Birmingham Bears)
Tammy Beaumont (The Blaze)
Lauren Bell (Hampshire Hawks)
Alice Capsey (Surrey)
Charlie Dean (Somerset)
Sophia Dunkley (Surrey)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire Thunder)
Lauren Filer (Durham)
Amy Jones (The Blaze)
Nat Sciver-Brunt (captain, The Blaze)
Paige Scholfield (Surrey)
Linsey Smith (Hampshire Hawks)
Danni Wyatt-Hodge (Surrey)
Issy Wong (Birmingham Bears)
In these confusing times nine play for counties, two for a major city and two for somewhere else in the Midlands.*
Sophie Ecclestone is restored to what many will consider her rightful place. The reason for her absence from the West Indian tour was put down to an injury, though she went on playing for the red rose county.
Since Linsey Smith has proved just as valuable as a left-arm slow – as well as a fine fielder and late-order batter, it’s Sarah Glenn’s fate to miss out. She hasn’t been able to maintain the consistency hoped for. The fact that spinning the ball is not her biggest calling card leaves a lot resting on her accuracy.
It remains to be seen whether Edwards will play all three spinners in a game (Charlie Dean the third). The Indians are alleged to be experts against the turning ball, though I have yet to be convinced of that claim.
In the fast-bowling stakes all Issy Wong’s supporters – I suspect they amount to several millions in the sub-continent – will be delighted to see her name included. It appears last only owing the demands of alphabetical order.
Em Arlott thoroughly deserves her retention, and that means there is no room for the most experienced of the regular seamers and swingers, Kate Cross.
A player who was deemed far too stodgy and slow to appear in another T20 is retained. But then, I had always found it hard finding fault with Tammy Beaumont.
That is not to say she’ll take first strike in every match. Three players will have to watch from beyond the rope in every game, and she may be one of them.
Much depends on Amy Jones’ fate. She rediscovered her batting touch in the ODI series, as Edwards took one of her bigger decisions and asked her to open with Danni Wyatt-Hodge. DWH and Sophia Dunkley opened in all three West Indies’ T20s. We’ll see whether Edwards favours stability over experiment. DWH’s ability to exploit the fielding side’s restrictions during the opening powerplay is a trump card England must play as often as possible.
For all that, flexibility in the batting order is a fine thing – so long as it works. But many pundits reckon that psychologically it’s best for each player to know precisely when she’ll be coming in. That would apply in particular to Alice Capsey, who still has to capitalise on her undoubted talents. If she knows in advance that she will be batting at three, four of five every time, that should help her produce the big runs everyone expects from her.
The Schedule
The five T20s stretch out to 12 July (see below). The ODIs pick up just four days later, by when batters will have had to relearn what “a straight bat” means, and other old-fashioned niceties.
The coming series will mark an end to Edwards’ gentle introduction to managing a national side. She may already have a clear idea about her preferred ODI squad, and have imparted it to her players well before the T20s conclude. If not, there will be little time for some of them to adjust to the different challenges presented by the longer format.
*Just for the curious, here are some of the teams the squad played for as recently as last year:
Central Sparks, Northern Diamonds, South East Stars, Thunder and Western Storm.
Now admit it, you had forgotten all of them, hadn’t you? At least, that’s what the ECB must be hoping, as players are redistributed all around the country. Mady Villiers (Essex) and Kate Levick (Yorkshire) playing for Durham? I ask you!
The Indian Squads (as originally announced):
T20I: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (w-k), Yastika Bhatia (w-k), Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, *Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare (15)
ODI: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (w-k), Yastika Bhatia (w-k), Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, *Shuchi Upadhyay, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sayali Satghare (16)
*Radha Yadav replaces the injured Shuchi Upadhyay (12 June).
Match Schedule:
Five T20s
26 June, Trent Bridge
1 July, Bristol
4 July, The Oval
9 July, Old Trafford
12 July, Edgbaston
Bristol substitutes for Headingley in an otherwise all test-ground sequence.
The three ODIs take place between 16 and 22 July.
That balance of 5:3 in favour of the shortest format tells an unwelcome story.
A run of five 4-day test matches will not follow.
