NEWS: England Play It Safe With West Indies Squad

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There are no surprises and no new caps in England’s squad to face the West Indies in the first two of 3 ODIs and 3 T20s this summer prior to the Women’s Ashes.

England have gone largely with experience, including veterans Jenny Gunn and Laura Marsh, and leaving out all of the recent “new” caps, with no room on the bus for the likes of Linsey Smith, Kirstie Gordon, Sophia Dunkley or Freya Davies.

Dunkley’s omission is particularly surprising after she scored over 450 runs at an average of 113, including 2 centuries and 3 fifties, in this season’s Women’s County Championship; but she misses out in favour of Fran Wilson, who has also been in excellent form for County Champions Kent.

Sarah Taylor comes back into the squad, after missing most of the county season through injury, but her Sussex team-mate Georgia Elwiss is not fully fit to return, despite having played for Sussex as a batsman last weekend.

Full Squad

Heather Knight (Berkshire)
Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
Kate Cross (Lancashire)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Alex Hartley (Lancashire)
Jenny Gunn (Nottinghamshire)
Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
Laura Marsh (Kent)
Nat Sciver (Surrey)
Anya Shrubsole (Berkshire)
Sarah Taylor (Sussex)
Fran Wilson (Kent)
Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
Danni Wyatt (Sussex)

6 thoughts on “NEWS: England Play It Safe With West Indies Squad”

  1. The justification will no doubt be that this is a warm-up for the main Ashes event not a trial but England cannot rely on Gunn, Shrubsole and Brunt.

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  2. I am glad to see the return of Gunn – a reassuringly calm head when bowling to rampaging bats. I guess you can’t choose everybody, but yes, I too am surprised by the omission of Dunkley.

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  3. It will be interesting to see if changes are made after the Windiest matches? The Aussies will be very tough, but the youngsters have to start somewhere, and the unknown factor may be a little weapon against them? But the other side of the coin is the squad picked must perform when selected.

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  6. I guess Robinson is hoping England wrap up the series in the first 2 matches, and if so he’s planning to try a few new players in the final game. Why else announce a squad for only the first 2 matches. But in order to do that England must win the first home ODI of the summer, something they’ve not done for 2 years now and it’s imperative that they get off to a positive start.

    There’s no time for a sloppy build up into the series this time. With a powerful and tough Aussie side on its way who surely look set to at least retain the Ashes, England need all the Championship points they can get against a sometimes shaky Windies side who are without Dottin, and by the way the warm-ups went, still acclimatising. It will be very hard to get even 2 points against Australia so England must try for all 6 in this series. 4 is an absolute bare minimum. That means batting to keep wickets in hand and no needless dismissals. I can’t remember that last time England lost because they went too slow, but I can remember very recently when they lost trying to go too fast.

    The squad selection has no surprises, but I think Robinson will shake things up in the third game and for the T20s. It’s been encouraging seeing how well some of the fringe players have been doing in the county game and I think we’ll see at least one or two brought in later.

    Overall I can’t wait for the series to start, and really looking forward to Thursday!

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