England announced their T20 World Cup squad earlier this week, with only one specialist seamer included in Lauren Bell. Despite their group of up and coming pacers who made international debuts over the last two years, none have yet been able to make the transition into a consistent spot in England’s XI.
Over Jon Lewis’s tenure as England’s head coach, which is now almost into its third year, England have trialed a wide group of fast-bowling prospects across their XIs. Lauren Filer shot into the public consciousness after a surprise debut in last year’s Ashes Test. Teenager Mahika Gaur made her international debut later in the summer. Issy Wong was also brought back into the senior set-up during last summer’s T20I series against Sri Lanka, but one disastrous two-over spell in which she bowled three no balls was her only appearance.
As a former pacer and England men’s fast bowling coach, Lewis’ appointment felt right as a guiding hand for this young crop of exciting quicks to come through onto the international stage. And, in all fairness, he hasn’t shied away from giving them a go. However, that willingness to bring them through into the international set-up has yet to translate into any of them consistently demanding a place in the starting XI. While Bell is head and shoulders above the rest in the T20I side, her and Kate Cross pretty much block out the route into ODI selection.
There are logical reasons behind this aside from Bell’s and Cross’ superiority in skill and experience. Over the last year, England have been preparing to play a T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, where spin is king. As such, they’ve invested in their trio of world-beating spinners, opting to play all three in the side at every opportunity, and brought in Linsey Smith as another left-arm option.
Spin also plays a more prominent role in the women’s game than the men’s, meaning the balance of the attack is always likely to be skewed towards spin. England also have several high-quality seam-bowling all-rounders to pad out their pace attack, with Nat Sciver-Brunt always in a first-choice starting XI, Dani Gibson establishing herself as the go-to option at the death, and Freya Kemp returning to fitness.
England have named a 15-strong squad for October’s Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE 🏆
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 27, 2024
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However, with the T20 World Cup now taking place in the UAE, perhaps the plan should have changed. England have four specialist spinners in their squad, as well as part-timers in Alice Capsey and Heather Knight, meaning they could well field an XI capable of bowling 20 overs of spin. In that lineup, Bell would be the only option who sits above the ‘medium-fast’ bracket.
With conditions in the UAE relatively unknown - England women have never played an international match there - banking on spin dominating to the extent of having such an imbalanced attack is a gamble. Equally, including a second option with a point of difference as express pace could be more useful than the three medium-pace all-rounders England have opted for.
Looking at the women’s T20 World Cup qualifier, which was held in the UAE earlier this year, the stats from that competition also suggest pace might be more effective than England’s squad would indicate.
Scotland, who qualified alongside Sri Lanka, took 32 of their 49 wickets with pace during that tournament. Sri Lanka’s spin attack was more dominant but given the quality they possess in that department, that’s hardly surprising. England have both quality pace options and a dominant spin attack to bring to the table, but they’ve only selected one and a half of those.
Of that group of fast bowlers earmarked as the talent to watch for England’s future, the only viable option they could have selected for this World Cup would have been Filer. Gaur has spent much of the last year focussing on completing her school exams, while Wong has been trying to get back to the form she showed in 2022. Filer has played five T20Is over the course of this year and looked more threatening in each. Her returns dipped slightly in The Hundred, but she remains the quickest option England have at their disposal.
In explaining her omission both Lewis and Heather Knight lauded her potential. “I think she’s really unlucky to miss out,” said Knight. “You can see the shift in her game that she’s made and she’s making it really hard for us to leave her out. I thought she bowled brilliantly in The Hundred without taking the wickets that she deserved, but in terms of her consistency of line and her accuracy, that’s really improved in the last year.”
“I think there’s more to come from Lauren,” said Lewis. “Everyone has to remember that she’s a 22-year-old fast-bowler who’s played a handful of international games, and a handful of domestic games really. The speed that she’s developing at, the growth that I can see coming past this point is really exciting…If you’re drilling down into her game in particular and what she can work a little bit more on are her skills at the back-end of the game. That’s where Lauren Bell gets in ahead of her. The next evolution of Lauren Filer will be about controlling swing. At the moment we’ve worked really hard on controlling line and length and now it’s about adding movement to what she does.”
Filer will play in England’s series against Ireland, in a developmental squad shorn of most of the World Cup players. The squads for that series also include Gaur and Wong, as well as Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who was called up to England’s ODI squad earlier in the summer to cover niggles in the fast-bowling group. With England headed to South Africa following the T20 World Cup, that Ireland series could be crucial in determining what the pace-bowling pecking order is going forward.
In the here and now, it remains to be seen whether England will miss Filer. There will always be compromises made in picking a 15-player squad for a World Cup but, in hoping that conditions will be similar to what they would have faced in Bangladesh, England have sacrificed squad balance for the sake of being able to stack the side in spin-friendly conditions. If they are to win a first T20 World Cup in 15 years, it’s a bet that must pay off.
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