Alice Capsey during the T20 World Cup before she was dropped and recalled to England's squad

Alice Capsey’s ‘reset’ from T20 international cricket was cancelled before it began last week when she was recalled to the squad for the three-match series against South Africa.

Capsey was left out of the squad after England’s early exit from the T20 World Cup, with head coach Jon Lewis citing “her inconsistency over a period of time, not just at the World Cup”. In her place, Paige Scholfield was called up having had a prolonged successful run in domestic competitions, although her role wasn’t expected to be a one-for-one swap for Capsey at No.3.

In justifying Capsey’s omission, Lewis went on to say: “Alice’s form has been trending downwards for probably the last eight to nine months. I felt that it’s a really good time for us and her to have a reset in how she goes about what she does, and give her a little bit more time to work out the issues that she’s having within her game and then come back stronger.”

Few England players had a good T20 World Cup. For Capsey, her three innings returned scores of 9, 19 and 1 - the final innings cut short after attempting to take a single called through by Maia Bouchier. Among batters, however, the only one who could really boast a par showing at the competition was Danni Wyatt-Hodge, with Heather Knight, Amy Jones and Bouchier all returning similar contributions as Capsey.

Looking at Capsey’s long-term form, there is some cause for concern, although it’s not as prominent as Lewis’s quotes would suggest. In T20Is this year, Capsey has averaged 22.27 - similar to her overall average in the format of 21.90. She scored a half-century against New Zealand in Canterbury, and was second only to Nat Siver-Brunt in terms of runs scored in their three-match series against Pakistan. Drilling in specifically, Capsey’s strike rate is likely to be of most cause of concern. Lewis has been clear that he wants his side to play attacking cricket, and he sees the role of Capsey at No.3 to “impact the game”. In half of her T20I innings this year, she’s struck at under 100.

Capsey is still only 20 years old, and she was called up to the international side off a burst of attention in The Hundred as a teenager. It’s not an indecipherable decision to give a young player who’s struggling licence to rediscover what made England pick her in the first place outside of the setup. Except, the “reset” she was given was never really complete.

She was retained in England’s ODI squad, a format she’s had limited success in and is still without a defined role in the side. Once Scholfield sustained an ankle injury, given Capsey was already travelling to South Africa, it made sense that she would be the one to replace her.

Outside the convenience, Capsey is clearly in England’s best squad of players. The lack of players England have ready to come in and take on positions in their top six was evident during their ‘B’ team series against Ireland, and in the lack of domestic players outside of their international crop who made runs in The Hundred this year. Beyond that, Capsey’s talent and future as an England international across formats is undeniable, regardless of current concerns over her returns.

The muddle over her dropping and recall however feels symptomatic of a side not entirely sure how to meaningfully move forward. The freshness Lewis injected into the squad when he first came in seems to have worn off. Folding under pressure in a major tournament is exactly what England have done for the last seven years now, with largely the same group of players. The work-life balance Lewis has tried to instil in a squad full of players who, for the most part, are still young, has led to questions over whether the scale has been tipped too far to the wrong end.

Those claims have been strongly denied by both Lewis and Knight, the latter of whom said when asked about Alex Hartley’s claims that “there are girls in that side who are letting the team down when it comes to fitness”, said - “I don’t think it [fitness] was the reason we lost the game and I don’t feel like it’s an issue in this side”.

But, if it’s not the fitness, the culture, or the players that’s an issue, then what is it? England haven’t won a major tournament since the 2017 World Cup and they have reached the final just once out of five attempts since 2018. Despite their successes in last year’s Ashes, they haven’t won an Ashes series in over a decade. While they enjoyed an undefeated home summer, cruising through bilateral series with little consequence is more of a check mark than a marker of significant progress.

There are nuts-and-bolts questions England can answer in South Africa. Despite claiming the second opener spot with a memorable performance in New Zealand, Bouchier had a difficult World Cup, and if Capsey doesn’t actually play then the make-up of England’s top three needs addressing. So does how they approach the No.7 spot with Dani Gibson out injured. While Scholfield was mentioned as an option for that position, it will now likely fall to Freya Kemp, who has been in and out of the side over the last year as she comes back from a stress fracture. Equally, where Lauren Filer fits in also needs addressing. South African pitches seem the perfect opportunity for the premier quick to assert herself after missing out on the T20 World Cup.

But beyond the mechanics, with another Ashes fast approaching, those wider questions will continue. While a fresh-faced New Zealand side won the T20 World Cup, a South Africa side who were able to redevelop as several of their golden generation stepped away, put Australia out. Equally, Australia’s problem in that tournament, as ever, seemed to almost be trying too hard to fit their abundance of talent into their side. England are starting to look like they’re floundering, and the direction they’re trending in as a team is stagnating.

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