Dunkley lost her position opening the batting in England’s T20I side during their recent tour of New Zealand to Maia Bouchier. However, she was moved down the order to bat at seven for the final two matches of the series. She was bowled by Jess Kerr for one in the only ODI she played in the following series. Bouchier has been retained in both squads in her place after an impressive run in New Zealand, scoring 223 runs at an average of 55.75.

“The message I’ve sent to Sophia is that I’d like to see her playing her best cricket,” said England head coach, Jon Lewis. “My view on Sophia at the moment is, if you look at it from a bowling perspective, she’s just a little bit out of rhythm. So we’ve decided to try and give her the space away from the bigger limelight in terms of the Pakistan series, both ODI and T20I cricket, to go and find some rhythm, get in the rhythm of batting and get back to your best and come back to us and see if you can make an impact again in international cricket.

“I still have a really strong belief that Sophia has got a big future playing for England, I think her talent is incredible. She just needs a little bit of space to get back to her best cricket and work out how to cope with the situations she’s being put in.”

Also absent from England’s T20I playing group from their previous series is Tammy Beaumont. Beaumont was recalled to the squad after two years on the sidelines, and played her 100th T20I in the first match of the series. She made scores of 15, 19 and 37 before she was left out of the final two matches. She has, however, retained her place in the ODI squad.

“Tammy and Sophia Dunkley will be very much in the conversation around who should be batting in the top three for England at the World Cup,” said Lewis. “What I was really keen to do with Tammy and Dunks in particular was not to carry them around as spare batters, and give them opportunities to play regional cricket rather than sitting on the bench as two experienced players.”

Other notable takeaways from the squads announced was the inclusion of Linsey Smith in the T20I squad. Smith was recalled for the New Zealand series for the first time since 2019, and took a wicket with her first ball back in international cricket. She will add to England’s impressive spin ranks with Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn all also in the T20I squad.

Teenage all-rounder Freya Kemp will also be available as a batter only for the T20I series. Kemp sustained a stress fracture in her back in late 2022 and returned to bowling in international cricket in India late last year. However, Lewis revealed Kemp had suffered a “flare up” of her injury in New Zealand, and therefore would not be able to bowl against Pakistan.

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“She’s a really young cricketer, and she’s a really exciting cricketer. We hope to have her back up and running, fit and firing to bowl and bat by the time we get round to the World Cup. Without putting too much pressure on all the staff, it will be pretty hard to get her up and running. She had a pretty bad stress fracture a couple of years ago and she had, not a recurrence of the injury, but she had a flare up in that area that we were really conscious that we needed to manage through New Zealand and the early part of this year. She hasn’t had a new stress fracture she’s had what you would call a hot spot in her back.

“We’ll manage her through this next part of the summer and hopefully by the time we get towards The Hundred and the back end of the New Zealand series we’ll have her back up and running, fully fit to play probably T20Is as a bowler, maybe not 50 overs yet. We felt that she could play a role as a batter in this series.”

The series will get underway with its T20I leg on May 11 at Edgbaston, before moving onto Northampton on May 17 and concluding at Headingley on May 19. The ODI series will start on May 23 at Derby with the following two games at Taunton and Chelmsford on May 26 and 29 respectively.

England women T20I squad vs Pakistan: Heather Knight (c), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith, Dani Wyatt.

England women ODI squad vs Pakistan: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Dani Wyatt.