Kate Cross, Amy Jones and Tash Farrant will all train with England ahead of the Women’s Ashes Test, which begins at the North Sydney Oval next Thursday.

Cross and Jones are in Australia playing WNCL state cricket for the Western Fury, who have won both their opening matches – Cross taking 3-26 against the Tasmania Roar; with Jones also making 48* in the same match – whilst Farrant is playing club cricket.

Although all 3 will play some part in this week’s Test preparations, with Cross likely to feature in England’s official warm-up in some capacity, reports that they have been “called-up” seem possibly a little wide of the mark – CRICKETher understands that they will be “considered for selection if required” – i.e. presumably if there are injury worries, which doesn’t appear to be the case at this stage.

With England having fought back in the 3rd ODI, changes to England’s settled batting line-up for the Test look unlikely; and (barring injuries) we’d expect at most one change in the bowling set-up; but it is more likely to be Hazell or Marsh coming in, rather than Cross, especially given that we now know that England’s other right-arm spin option – Heather Knight – has been nursing a foot injury, which would explain why she did not bowl at all during the ODIs.

England play a 3-day warm-up match, starting tomorrow at Bankstown, against a young Australia XI; with the Day-Night Test beginning at 3:30am UK time next Thursday morning.

England are looking set to host South Africa and New Zealand in a packed summer of international cricket in 2018.

England’s season will begin with the 3 ICC Women’s Championship ODIs against South Africa in June, before New Zealand come to the party for a 6-match round-robin T20 Tri-Series, culminating in a final on 1st July, at the County Ground in Chelmsford.

New Zealand will then play their 3 Championship ODIs versus England in mid-July, prior to the Kia Super League, which all of the top players are of course expected to stay on for.

With the World T20 coming up in the Caribbean that autumn, the T20 Tri-Series will act as both an early warm-up and an important yardstick of the teams’ progress in the game’s shortest format. South Africa and New Zealand will both be among the leading teams challenging for the World T20 trophy, so next summer will represent a stern test for England as they look to add a second world crown to the World Cup they won last summer!

ICC Women’s Championship ODIs v South Africa

9 June – First ODI v South Africa – New Road, Worcester, 11am

12 June – Second ODI v South Africa – The 1st Central County Ground, Hove (D/N), 1pm

15 June – Third ODI v South Africa – Canterbury (D/N), 2pm

T20 Tri-Series – England, South Africa & New Zealand

20 June – The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, South Africa v New Zealand, 1pm start; England v South Africa, 5:40pm

23 June – The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, England v South Africa, 1pm start; England v New Zealand, 5:40pm

28 June – The Brightside Ground, Bristol, South Africa v New Zealand, 1pm start; England v New Zealand, 5:40pm

1 July – Final – The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford, 3pm

ICC Women’s Championship ODIs v New Zealand

7 July – First ODI v New Zealand – Emerald Headingley, 11am

10 July – Second ODI v New Zealand – The 3aaa County Ground, Derby (D/N), 1pm

13 July – Third ODI v New Zealand – The Fischer County Ground, Grace Road (D/N), 2pm

Kia Super League Finals Day

27 August – The 1st Central County Ground, Hove

The Women’s Ashes begins with the 1st ODI, at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, on Sunday morning – starting at just after midnight UK time, with live coverage on BT Sport and BBC 5 Live.

Instinctively, you might feel England are the favourites, having just won a World Cup at which Australia under-performed, but that isn’t how the bookies see it – at time of writing, both William Hill (11/8) and Bet365 (6/4) have England and Australia at identical odds.

The ICC’s own rankings seem to agree that it is a very close call between the two sides: both have a “rating” of 128, and you have to drill down to the second decimal place before you find England ahead by 0.05 “ratings” to claim top spot.

For me, I think the rankings have a point – England are favourites… but only just!

For the first time in what feels like forever, England have a truly settled team of players who you feel all deserve to be there. At the top of the order, Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield can write their own names on the team sheet; and although Winfield has looked slightly the lesser player recently, that is perhaps only because Beaumont has been so prolific, as she has transformed herself from a solid “county pro” to a World Cup-winning Player of the Tournament.

Then a middle-order of Sarah Taylor, Nat Sciver and Heather Knight is a middle order that has some serious runs in it. It says something that if you were forced to name a “weak link” here, it would be Knight, who has actually been by some way the most successful England player in Australian domestic cricket in recent years, captaining the Hobart Hurricanes to an over-achieving semi-final qualification spot in both editions of the WBBL.

Fran Wilson rounds off the batting, with the ability to play a variety of different games according to the state of the match, and her athleticism in the field at cover/ point means you can add another 2o runs to whatever she scores with the bat.

And yet for all this quality in the batting department, that is not even England’s real strength – Australia have some good bats too! But every single one of England’s bowlers would walk into Australia’s team without question.

Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole have proved themselves time and again to be warhorses on the field of play; and whilst Jenny Gunn might not “look” too threatening these days, she weaves all her years of experience into every ball and you underestimate her at your peril!

There is one question mark over England’s starting XI though – which of the four (!!) world class spinners misses out? Laura Marsh, Dani Hazell, Alex Hartley and Sophie Ecclestone can’t all play… but you’d bet Mark Robinson wishes they could!

And then… speak of the devil… there is Mark Robinson himself – the calm, gently-spoken man, who took basically the same team that never quite convinced under the previous regime – tweaked it here and there – and won the World Cup at the first time of asking!

It is still going to be close – Australia will hit some big totals and England wouldn’t be England if they didn’t collapse at least once! But overall, there is a quiet confidence about England – they have the edge, and Australia know it – hence all the “bringing the bitch back” nonsense – they can bring back all the bitch they want… but it is England who will be bringing back the Ashes!

With the Women’s Ashes starting on Sunday, England suffered another exasperating day in Brisbane, as their second ODI warm-up was rained-off without a ball being bowled.

Following Monday’s severely curtailed match against a young Australia XI, England were due to take on the local WNCL team – the Queensland Fire – but the rain meant the players were unable to take the field.

Head Coach Mark Robinson said: “It’s obviously hugely frustrating but there isn’t much you can do about the weather. We’re itching to be out on grass and be competitive.”

England’s only consolation is that Australia’s own preparations have been similarly affected, as they too have struggled to get time in the middle, with their match against the Fire also totally washed-out, and then their game against the youngsters abandoned after 30 overs.

We are told England are still hopeful of scheduling another warm-up prior to Sunday’s 1st ODI, which starts at just after midnight UK time.

The first of England’s two “official” Women’s Ashes ODI warm-ups – against a young “Cricket Australia XI” – was abandoned due to rain in Brisbane.

England named 12 players – adding Sophie Ecclestone to the XI they fielded in the World Cup final at Lords – but Ecclestone didn’t even get a chance to bowl a ball, as the match was rained-off after just 18.1 overs.

With Australia having won the toss and chosen to bat, Katherine Brunt took the early wickets of Sophie Molineux and Katie Mack, before Georgia Redmayne and Heather Graham dug-in to take the Aussies to 67-2. Graham was Caught & Bowled by Laura Marsh for 28, bringing Nicola Carey to the crease, but not for long, as the rain set in and play was abandoned, with Australia on 77-3.

England will get another warm-up chance on Wednesday against the same opposition, prior to the 1st ODI next Sunday.

England have announced their squad for the Women’s Ashes in Australia next month. The 15-player squad is largely the same squad which won the World Cup this summer, with just one change – left-arm orthodox spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who was the leading wicket-taker in county cricket this season, comes in at the expense of fast-bowler Beth Langston.

England will also have Kate Cross and Amy Jones semi-available as potential injury replacements, with both already out in Australia playing domestic cricket.

Full Squad:

• Heather Knight
• Tammy Beaumont
• Katherine Brunt
• Sophie Ecclestone
• Georgia Elwiss
• Jenny Gunn
• Alex Hartley
• Dani Hazell
• Laura Marsh
• Anya Shrubsole
• Nat Sciver
• Sarah Taylor
• Fran Wilson
• Lauren Winfield
• Danni Wyatt

The series begins with the 1st ODI in Brisbane on October 22nd and ends with the 3rd T20 in Canberra on November 21st. All matches are expected to be broadcast in the UK, with the limited overs games being shown live on BT Sport, whilst the Test will be live-streamed on the Cricket Australia web site.

The ECB today announced that Kia’s sponsorship of women’s cricket has been extended for a further 2 years, running until the end of 2019.

Kia originally signed a 3 year deal to sponsor the England women’s team, which was later expanded to include the “title” sponsorship of the Super League.

The deal was/ is not a huge one in financial terms – the original agreement was worth only a fraction of what Waitrose were paying at the time to sponsor the men’s team – but it was/ is still hugely significant because it is a “stand-alone” deal for the women’s game – not a “tack-on” sponsorship to the men’s game.

And that Kia chose to expand their commitment via the Super League was also big news, because it put a value on women’s domestic cricket for the first time in this country.

Meanwhile Kia are clearly happy that it is a proposition which has worked for them, as they continue to target the “soccer cricket mom” market with their mid-range SUVs, as driven by all the England players.

So why have they only signed on for two years this time?

Well…

[Idle speculation alert!!]

In 2020 the ECB are planning to launch their “City T20” competition.

Right now, the City T20 is only being talked about as a men’s tournament; but following the logic of BBL/ WBBL, might not an aligned Women’s City T20 also make sense?

Put it this way: it would be a remarkable surprise if the idea hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind over at ECB Towers; and that would mean no more Kia Super League after 2019… which is exactly when the extended Kia deal is now scheduled to end.

As the kids say… you do the math!

With just a month to go until England fly Down Under for the Women’s Ashes, coach Mark Robinson has been meeting with his team this week to finalise the squad.

The Ashes squad is officially 15 players, but there may be some wriggle-room in terms of naming different squads for different formats, so who is likely to be in and out?

It is probably safe to say that the 13 players who played during the World Cup are all pretty sure bets to be involved:

1. Heather Knight
2. Tammy Beaumont
3. Katherine Brunt
4. Jenny Gunn
5. Alex Hartley
6. Dani Hazell
7. Laura Marsh
8. Nat Sciver
9. Anya Shrubsole
10. Sarah Taylor
11. Fran Wilson
12. Lauren Winfield
13. Danni Wyatt

This leaves officially just 2 spots to fill, so who is in contention?

There were two players named in the World Cup squad who didn’t play: Georgia Elwiss and Beth Langston; and a further three in the contracted squad: Amy Jones, Tash Farrant and Kate Cross.

One thing you need on a long, distant tour is a versatile all rounder to act as an injury back-up, and Georgia Elwiss is that player – a good enough batsman to be selected on merit and a good enough bowler to fill-in when required – it would be a big surprise if she was left behind, so that’s 14!

The final, 15th spot is where all the big questions lie, which is why England might go with two, or even three, 15ths!

Beth Langston was in the World Cup squad and never got her chance, so it might seem unfair to leave her behind, but (as my dad used to say) life’s not fair… and he might have added that professional sport definitely isn’t, so is there an opportunity for A.N. Other?

Kate Cross is as close as England get to a “Test Specialist” – she didn’t have a great Super League (1 wicket, and an economy rate of 9) but that probably shouldn’t have too much bearing on Test selection, and her batting, which has come on a lot over the past couple of years, could be handy, so there is perhaps a case to be made for her in the Test squad.

If England have a “T20 Specialist” it is Tash Farrant, who has played just one ODI but 9 T20s since her debut in 2013. She opened the bowling for the Vipers in the Super League and took 6 wickets at an economy rate of 6.2 – not terrible numbers by any means, but not exactly “banging down the door” either.

Amy Jones (who should have recovered from the broken finger which kept her out of the last couple of rounds of Super League) is England’s official under-glove-butler* but we have a feeling that Tammy Beaumont keeping-wicket for the Surrey Stars in Super League (even when they had a “proper” keeper – Kirstie White – on the field) might have been a sign from on-high that England will look to turn to her if Sarah Taylor gets injured out in Australia.

In addition to the contracted squad, there are a handful of wildcards. Sophie Ecclestone had a fantastic domestic season – topping the wicket-taking charts in the County Championship – but England are pretty flush with spinners right now, with Alex Hartley, Laura Marsh and Dani Hazell, so she will probably have to wait her turn – it will come – but maybe just not quite yet!

The other outside shots are opening batsman Emma Lamb and fast bowler Freya Davies.

Lamb is one of those players who would thrive if the game we played was more like men’s Test cricket – pace on the ball, and 5 days to bat – but it isn’t. Yes there is a (4 day) Test, and yes it is Australia where the pitches will be faster, but there won’t be serious pace on the ball from this Aussie attack; and besides, who would you drop…?

So if England do make an “outside” pick it is more likely to be Davies, who the England management clearly see as a long-term replacement for Katherine Brunt, who is 32 now and therefore unlikely to continue much past next year’s World T20 in the West Indies. Heather Knight obviously rates Davies, trusting her to open the bowling for the Storm in the Super League; and although England got through the World Cup with the injury-prone axis of Shrubsole and Brunt playing every match, they might not be so lucky this time, so taking another “proper” fast bowler might be a wise move.

Will Mark Robinson agree? For what it’s worth, we haven’t got a clue… but we will find out very soon!

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* Back-up wicket keeper!