Key Points Reflecting on England’s Tour of the West Indies

England Women’s Cricket Team secured two series wins over the West Indies, whitewashing both the T20s and the ODIs. The tour commenced with three ODIs, England winning the first two matches by 142 runs, with the latter game won by a triumphant 151 runs. The T20 series was also successful with England winning 5–0, in the last match, England bowled the home side out for a mere 43.

England won both the T20 & ODI series against the West Indies

It’s all well and good beating the 6th best team

England have won all their games my very comfortable margins but it would be naïve to view this series as fully successful. In the second and third ODI, England were bowled out for 256 and 260 respectively. With a home Ashes less than six months away, England need to be scoring runs, especially at the top of the order. Australia reinforced their power-house status at the 2022 World Cup, beating England by 71 runs in the final when they scored a huge 356 runs. England scored 285 runs which, at the time, was considered a huge effort and a fighting performance.

Furthermore, looking to the T20 World Cup, England will have to match their main competitors, India and Australia. Those teams have just been playing a series in India where a par T20 score has been 180+ with the visitors hitting 196. England’s highest T20 total against the West Indies was 157, far from matching either India or Australia. It must be taken into account that conditions will have been different and pitches vary between India and the Caribbean however, the style of cricket that those teams are playing currently is appearing superior to that of England.

In ODIs, England cannot rely on just Nat Sciver to pile on the runs. Amy Jones has returned to fine form in the ODI series, scoring 130 runs across three matches, being not out in two games. Danni Wyatt has had some decent totals however, players staying at the crease is the key and if England’s openers could bat for longer, then they could avoid their collapses.

Bowling options growing and developing

Although not much has changed with England’s batting order, bowling is the big change for the side. With the retirement of Anya Shrubsole after to 2022 World Cup and Katherine Brunt exclusively playing T20s, there is a new opening pair in the ODIs. Experienced seamer, Kate Cross, has stepped into the role alongside young bowler, Lauren Bell. Both players have had an exceptional tour, Cross took 5 wickets from the three ODI matches while Bell took 5 wickets from two ODIs and 9 more in the three T20s! Freya Davies has continued to be consistent, taking a wicket in her last seven international games, and three in the last T20. Likewise, Sophie Ecclestone has taken wickets for fun, breaking a record this tour. Ecclestone took 56 international wickets in 2022, the most any women has ever taken in a calendar year.

With spinning all-rounder, Alice Capsey out with a broken collarbone, Charlie Dean got an opportunity to play in the second T20. Despite this being only her second T20I, Dean took 3/22 with the wickets of Hayley Matthews, Kycia Knight and Rashada Williams under her belt. Dean took 11 wickets in the T20 series and looks to be a clear selection for the World Cup.

Look after young players

In the first ODI, all-rounder, Alice Capsey broke her left collarbone while fielding in attempt to stop a boundary. The injury left her needed shoulder reconstruction and it looks likely that she will miss the T20 World Cup in February. Naturally, injuries are part and parcel of sport, as in the case of Capsey, a simple sport injury while playing.

On the other hand, a more concerning injury for England is left arm seamer Freya Kemp who has sustained a stress fracture in her back. The 17 year old broke into the England side ahead of the Commonwealth Games and has since played eleven matches for England across ODIs and T20s, taking eleven wickets. Kemp also become the youngest woman to make a T20I fifty for England, scoring her maiden international half-century against India. Prior to this summer, Kemp had been out injured for a number of seasons meaning that she has gone from not playing, to a full domestic and international season.

Stress fractures in the lower back are always a concern for fast bowlers and with schedules increasing, it has been a talking point. Fellow left arm seamer, Tash Farrant, was ruled out of the English summer due to a stress fracture and with Kemp sustaining the same injury, it’s worrying that this may become a pattern.

A shambles in the organisation

There was always sense of shambles from the start! With the tour only weeks away, dates or venues had not been announced, there was not a squad - not even a head coach. Of course this is not ideal for fans and viewers however, it was disastrous for the media. Journalists could not really organise to travel out there and so the coverage of the series was not good enough. The TV coverage was not very high quality for the most part and the radio coverage was intermittent. For an international series, it is not acceptable.