Jon Lewis has stuck with experience as England look to win their first Ashes series in more than a decade
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England have placed trust in their experienced core of players with the Women’s Ashes squad selection, making just one change to the T20 side from their early World Cup exit.
The last time England won an Ashes was the 2013-14 edition, and the upcoming series shapes up to be a defining moment for Heather Knight’s team.
The multi-format nature of the series means there are in effect three squads chosen, one for each of T20s, ODIs and the Test match, although the same players will feature in all three.
While on the men’s side Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have called up a plethora of inexperienced talent to varying degrees of success, the likes of Shoaib Bashir, Rehan Ahmed, Josh Hull and Jacob Bethell, the women’s team selection has been more predictable.
Coach Jon Lewis has erred on the side of caution, retaining the faith in essentially the same squad who featured in the 2023 Ashes with just four additions: Freya Kemp, Linsey Smith (T20 squad only), wicketkeeper Bess Heath (T20 and Test) and Ryana MacDonald-Gay (Test).
In their last major tournament, England crashed out of the T20 World Cup having dropped five catches in a disappointing performance that raised questions about the fitness of players and their ability to deal with pressure.
The T20 World Cup was not the first time Lewis’s England have fallen short, nor the first time the occasion got to them. Against South Africa the previous T20 World Cup body language similarly slumped, leaving England exposed, and facing another early tournament exit.
In the aftermath, Lewis made one key decision, to drop promising youngster Alice Caspey ahead of the tour of South Africa for the T20s and Test match. Paige Scholfield was called up, but she sustained an injury and Capsey was then reinstated and has since retained her place in the white-ball Ashes squads.
The Ashes is not a major tournament, but the expectation and occasion is likely to be similar as the players face up to an Australian outfit who have dominated women’s cricket over the last decade.
Knight will continue to lead the side as she has done in every series since taking over the captaincy from Charlotte Edwards in 2016, in a series that includes the first-ever women’s pink-ball day-night Test match.
Heather Knight (captain), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge
Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Linsey Smith, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge
Heather Knight (captain), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge
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