The missing generation – who are the next wave of England batters?

In 2029 there will be another Ashes tour of Australia and another 50 over World Cup. Who will be batting for England on that tour and in that competition?

Here are the ages of our current top 5 batters in 2029. It would not be much of a wild prediction to say that none of them will be playing in the next World Cup and the next Ashes tour.

Tammy Beaumont – age 38

Amy Jones – age 36

Heather Knight – age 38

Nat Sciver-Brunt – age 37

Danni Wyatt-Hodge – age 38

So where is our current crop of batters aged 18-27 who could be part of that team? Based on last season’s Metro Bank One Day Cup, here are the probables, the possibles and maybe-nots. Remember – this is just about the batters (and all-rounders and keepers). I’ve not considered the bowling options.

5 Batters currently in and around the England squad

Emma Lamb – age 27. Will be 31 in 2029. Lamb secured her place in the England squad following some fine early season form for Lancashire. She was by far the leading run scorer in last year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup with 794 runs at an average of 72. Her top score was 142. She hit six fifties and two centuries. However, she has been unconvincing in an England shirt since her recall to the side and her World Cup stats make awful reading: top score of 13, a total of 36 runs from 5 innings and dropped for the final two games. To be fair on Lamb, she was played out of position in the middle order. But when opportunities are given, they have to be taken. She remains not a completely convincing choice for 2029.

Maia Bouchier – age 26. Will be 30 in 2029. Bouchier could count herself unlucky to have missed out on selection for the 2025 World Cup. She scored 539 runs at an average of 41 in fifty over cricket last season. Her top score was 93 not out and she scored six half centuries across the competition. She also has an ODI century for England (against New Zealand at Worcester in 2024). However, she had a disastrous Ashes tour and her inability to occupy the crease for long periods of time and accumulate big centuries in the way that, for example, Emma Lamb does, has meant that she is not fully trusted as an ODI batter. Likely to remain a T20 specialist, so not a convincing choice for 2029.

Alice Capsey – age 21. Will be 25 in 2029. Ironically, it has been Capsey’s part-time bowling which has preserved her place in the current England ODI team. Her top score for England in ODIs was only 44 until she recently scored 50 in the World Cup semi-final. There is a feeling that Capsey has stagnated in her career after a blisteringly quick start as a 16 year old in the 2021 Hundred competition. However, this season was a very good one for her in 50 over cricket. She scored 448 runs for Surrey at an average of 45. She had a top score of 125 and three half centuries. Her strike rate of 98 was the second highest of any batter to score over 400 runs. She is very likely to be right at the heart of the England team for the 2029 and the 2033 (and maybe even the 2037) World Cup.

Sophia Dunkley – age 27. Will be 31 in 2029. Had a great start to the season with Surrey, scoring a century and two half centuries in the first month and averaging 64 across her six One Day Cup innings for the county. For England she had a good home ODI series against India, although did not do so well against West Indies. However, with 68 runs from six innings at the World Cup, she was perceived as part of the big middle order problem that England faced. She has now played 44 ODI innings for England across five seasons. She has scored one century and six half centuries and averages 25. Against Australia she averages just under 13 from 8 innings and has a top score of 28. So across a five year career, 17% of her innings could be seen as a success, compared with 31% for Tammy Beaumont and 25% for Heather Knight. Looking across other international teams at players playing a similar role: 30% for Melia Kerr, 22% for Jemimah Rodrigues, 29% for Annabel Sutherland, 21% for Brooke Halliday, she is performing significantly below all of them. It feels that she is part of the past, not part of the future for England and I would be surprised to see her featuring in the 2029 World Cup.

Freya Kemp – age 20. Will be 24 in 2029. Made her ODI début in 2022 as a 17 year old. Has missed much of the past two years with injury, which has also prevented her from bowling. She had a strong end of the season for Hampshire with the bat, helping to steer them to the One Day Cup Final, averaging 60 across her six innings and striking at 125, including her maiden One Day century against The Blaze in July. She is also left-handed, which is a huge gap in England’s current batting options. If she stays injury free and develops her bowling further, she could become one of the most valuable players in world cricket and the natural long-term replacement to Nat Sciver-Brunt as England’s go-to all-rounder. The time to promote her to become an all-format England player is now. Could be the key player in 2029.

7 Batters outside the squad who should be considered

Kathryn Bryce – age 27. Will be 31 in 2029.  Ultra-reliable all-rounder. Scored 632 runs in the Metro Bank One Day Cup in 2025, second only to Emma Lamb, including one century and six half-centuries. Has already scored an ODI century for Scotland. Averages 66 in her 10 ODIs for them. She was also amongst the top 10 wicket takers in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, taking 18 wickets with her medium pace bowling. She should lead Scotland to the T20 World Cup in England in 2026, after which she needs to be convinced to transfer allegiance. I realise that this will not be a popular idea north of the border, but I would even make her England captain for the 2027 Ashes.

Grace Scrivens – age 21. Will be 25 in 2029. Reliable left-handed opening batter. Scored 429 runs last season, averaging 39, with two centuries and one half-century. Captain of Essex. She captained Sunrisers to the Rachael Heyhoe Flint trophy in 2024 and England under 19s to the World Cup final of 2023. Patient and technically correct, she is a natural-born ODI or even Test Match player. With a strike rate of 76, she gets the pulses racing of only the most old-fashioned cricket purists. Her left handedness may get her in the team, but her leadership skills and temperament will keep her there. Definitely ready for promotion to the Test and ODI squad now and possibly a future England captain.

Ella McCaughan – age 23. Will be 27 in 2029. Her 2025 season was cruelly ended by injury. Had it not, she surely would have been challenging Emma Lamb as the leading run scorer. Her 349 runs from eight innings included a brilliant 133 not out for Hampshire against Lancashire at Southport in April. An aggressive opening batter who flourishes equally in the 50 over and T20 game, she needs to be promoted to the England side, potentially in time for the T20 World Cup, if not, as part of the reset which will inevitably happen after that World Cup (regardless of the result).

Davina Perrin – age 19. Will be 23 in 2029. Most people know Perrin for that innings at The Oval for Northern Superchargers on 30^th August 2025. Of course, her season was much more than that. She scored her first List A century a month earlier at Edgbaston for Warwickshire against Surrey, a significant milestone for a player who made her début in 2021 as a 15-year-old, so this was no overnight success. Over the course of those five seasons, there has been a growing sense that Perrin is destined for the very top, not just for the runs she scores, but the temperament she shows and the manner in which she scores them. She just looks like she belongs at the top level. Promotion to T20 squad for the World Cup followed by a long all-format England career beckons. Who knows, she might even be lifting the ODI World Cup in 2041 as some of us watch on from some kind of residential care home facility.

Rhianna Southby – age 25. Will be 29 in 2029. 

Seren Smale – age 20. Will be 24 in 2029.

Nat Wraith – age 24. Will be 28 in 2029.

These three wicket-keepers all had very similar seasons. Some very good performances with the gloves and with the bat. Of the three, Southby is most obviously suited to 50 over cricket and is the most skilful keeper of the three. Smale’s batting can be explosive and game-changing, and she has featured for England previously, on their 2024 tour of Ireland, as well as being part of the under 19 World Cup squad of 2023. Wraith’s move to Warwickshire has been very successful, quickly becoming the first-choice keeper and striking handy runs down the order at a run a ball, with a top score of 75. I suspect either Smale or Durham’s Bess Heath may be on stand-by for the T20 World Cup, whilst Southby is the more likely long-term ODI option.

3 possibles – those with the potential to become contenders in the next 12 months

Emma Jones – age 23. Will be 27 in 2029. Her career has been badly affected by injury, but her recent decision to leave Surrey and join The Blaze is one that could have a galvanizing effect on her progress. A very useful bowler who has been part of the ECB fast bowling programme over the last 12 months, she can hit valuable runs down the order, most notably 141 valuable runs for Surrey in the One Day Cup against Essex in September, something which hints that Surrey have not managed to get the best out of her by limiting her opportunities. She played only four One Day Cup games last season, but managed to score 222 runs at an average of 55 and a strike rate of 108. The sort of multi-skill player that England have been lacking in recent times.

Ailsa Lister age 21. Will be 25 in 2029. Her score of 96 in the Metro Bank semi final for Lancashire against The Blaze was enough to win the game for the Red Rose county. Throughout last season Lister was prolific, particularly in the T20 Blast, where she scored 281 runs at a strike rate of 149. Currently more of a T20 player, but it will be interesting to see how she develops in the next 12 months. Also a wicket-keeper. Also a Scottish international (sorry again Scotland).

Jodi Grewcock age 20. Will be 24 in 2029. She is a reasonable wrist spin bowler who bats quite well at number 5. Or a fairly good middle order batter who can turn her arm over with wrist spin. It will be developments in Grewcock’s batting over the next 12 months which determines whether she becomes an England player. She is a left-handed batter, something which England desperately needs, so the ability to hit runs at number 7 for England and deliver half a dozen decent overs of spin could be the thing that gets her into the team. Time will tell.