England spring surprises in their WWT20 Squad

England have named three uncapped players in their 15 player squad for the Women's World T20 Trophy which starts on 8th November in the West Indies. Loughborough Lightning duo Linsey Smith, 23, and former Scotland player Kirstie Gordon, 20, are joined in the squad by Surrey Stars player 20 year old Sophia Dunkley.

Left-arm spinner Gordon finished top wicket-taker with 17 wickets in this year's extended KSL, and former left-arm seamer, turned spinner, Smith, picked up 11 wickets, as the Lightning finished top of the table only to be beaten by Surrey Stars in the final. Despite both being left-arm spinners they have a very different style, with Gordon giving the ball plenty of air compared with Smith, who tends to fire the ball in at leg stump. As a result Smith quite frequently bowled in the powerplay for Lightning, whilst Gordon bowled only one of her 35 overs in the first six.

Dunkley made an enterprising 92 in a T20 warm-up game against the New Zealand tourists in back in June, but was not selected for the full England T20 squad that played both the Kiwis and South Africa later that month. She subsequently had a quiet KSL scoring just 98 runs in 10 innings, which included 66 in the Stars' opening match of their campaign against the Vipers, but had obviously shown enough to England Head Coach Mark Robinson to get the nod.

The full squad is :-
Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Tash Farrant, Kirstie Gordon, Jenny Gunn, Danni Hazell, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver, Linsey Smith, Anya Shrubsole, Lauren Winfield and Dani Wyatt

Smith and Gordon will be competing for a place in the starting XI with another left-arm spinner in Sophie Ecclestone, whilst the right-arm off-spin variation comes through Danni Hazell.

Dunkley will be competing with Lauren Winfield for a place in England's middle order, but may be called into action if any of the top order batsmen should be injured or lose their form during the competition.

Missing out on the trip to the West Indies are six fully contracted players in Kate Cross, Georgia Elwiss, Alex Hartley, Beth Langston, Laura Marsh and Fran Wilson, plus Sarah Taylor who was declared unfit for the tournament a week ago. Also missing out are rookies Alice Davidson-Richards, Freya Davies and Katie George.

England are in Group A in St Lucia where they will play Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and West Indies. The top two teams from that group will make it through to the semi-finals in Antigua on 22nd November. The final is at the same ground two days later.

Martin Davies
04/X/18