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21 hours ago
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Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. England’s head coach, Charlotte Edwards, is perfectly sane, but on Tuesday she announced a squad for the home T20 World Cup that starts on 12 June almost exactly the same as the one that surrendered the Ashes, by a score of 16-0, 15 months ago. The optics are dreadful.
For anyone who has followed England closely over the past year, the conservatism of Edwards and her selection panel comes as no surprise. Last summer, the main selection news was that Kate Cross – who did not play in the Ashes due to injury – was discarded. Edwards awarded one new cap, to Em Arlott, who was also the only new face in the squad Edwards took to India in October.
The beginnings of a tiny generational shift are apparent in her decision to bring the Surrey wicketkeeper Kira Chathli and the Essex all-rounder Jodi Grewcock into the ODI squad against New Zealand in May. But neither will play in the World Cup because the squad is already signed, sealed and delivered to the ICC.
So, as England fight desperately to follow in the footsteps of the Lionesses and the Red Roses and put on a good showing at home, Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge will open the batting. Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight will make up the backbone of the middle order.
Amy Jones will keep wicket: such is the confidence of the selectors in her ability to a) score runs and b) remain uninjured that her official reserve is Capsey, who has barely worn the gloves since turning professional more than five years ago. Sophie Ecclestone and Charlie Dean will bowl spin and one of Lauren Bell or Lauren Filer will be unleashed to try to take wickets in the powerplay.
If that sounds boringly yet terrifyingly familiar there is a good reason for that: take a look at the XI who were bowled out for an historic low of 90 in the Ashes T20 at Adelaide.
Edwards disagreed with this assessment on Wednesday. “It’s a very different side to the one that walked out in the last game of the Ashes,” she said. “Especially Dani Gibson and Freya Kemp: we’ve seen a real confidence build in those players. A real belief.”
Edwards added that the 19-year-old batter Davina Perrin, who lit up the Hundred semi-final last August with a swashbuckling century, had been in the mix for selection, but there was no opening spot available. “She hasn’t had as much exposure to other places in the order. You need quite a versatile batter on the bench,” Edwards said.
The numbers support Edwards’s choices. The leading run-scorers in England’s intra-squad series in Pretoria in March – designed as a World Cup squad-filtering mechanism – were Dunkley, Capsey and Wyatt-Hodge. Perrin batted three times in five matches and scored 37 runs, with a top score of 18. But maybe, at a time when the powers-that-be are absolutely desperate to find themselves a cricketing version of Ellie Kildunne, it was worth taking a punt on a teenager who is capable of playing a once-in-a-generation innings?
There is a widespread perception that however many global tournaments or Ashes series England lose, there is a core of players who are undroppable. This squad does nothing to disrupt that sentiment. Three of them – Knight, Sciver-Brunt and Wyatt-Hodge – are not just survivors from the Lord’s triumph of 2017, but have played in every World Cup since (there have been six in all formats) and have won a grand total of zero trophies between them. Asking the public to trust that things will be different on the seventh occasion would be, well, insanity. But here we are.
For now, the hopes of a new generation rest on the 18-year-old left-arm spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman: the only uncapped player in the squad. Her giddy excitement at the news – “I’ve been on cloud nine ever since” – was a reminder of why Edwards likes her so much.
Here at last is a youngster who, even in the days of picking up a £105,000 price-tag in the Hundred auction, still feels the same passion and delight about representing England that Edwards did when she, too, was called up as a teenager, back in the amateur era. “Whether I’m on the pitch or running drinks, it will be a massive learning opportunity,” Corteen-Coleman said. “I’m going to be try to be the best water girl I can be.”
She is right to be cautious – as she is fighting with at least one of Linsey Smith, the vice-captain, Dean, and the world No 2, Ecclestone, for a spot. But it is also the kind of humility some of her teammates could exhibit a little more.
