The CRICKETher Weekly - Episode 219 - England v Pakistan; England Captaincy; Sparks Coaches Exit

This week in women's cricket news:
England unconvincing v Pakistan
A run-down of possible future England captains - is Scrivens really such a mad option?
Lancashire get the timing wrong on double headers
Sparks part ways with coaches mid-season - a bold move!

[@bengreatorex502]

One of the bravest and best episodes is this.

[@jonathanmcalroy8640]

Agree with everything regarding Heather Knight but I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that she’ll give up the captaincy nor do I think Lewis will drop her. Regarding replacement captains, I took it as a given that there were no ready replacements in the existing team (largely thanks to HK) and so i thought you might go through a list of non-England captains. As well as Grace, Hollie Armitage and Bryony Smith should be considered, but the hill I’ll die on is the highest rated player in the PCA and most successful captain playing today; Georgia Adams.

[@jonathanmcalroy8640]

Just one other thing that's occurred to me; last week you talked about whether field catches should be credited to bowlers - reasoning that they are batter errors rather than bowling wins. By the same token, I don't think field placements should be credited to the captain as you suggested for Grace Scrivens. Assuming the field positions aren't insane - the equivalent of a bowler not bowling head-height wides - a field catch is a batting error rather than a captain placing the field.

[@Hugh-nr5sx]

There is an additional complication with the upcoming schedule and however you cut it there is going to need to have to be some real depth in the squad otherwise too many are going to be overtired come the Ashes hot off the South African tour. Though Syd hinted at it there are going to have to be wholesale changes to the England team and better the process is started now than in one full swoop after the next home Ashes. Me - the 50-over is a choice of Grace Scrivens, Grace Scrivens or Grace Scrivens. So much for the future also depends on a fully fit Freya Kemp and that still seems a bit of a question. Seren Smale has not fired in the CEC so far and already is looking like a specialist 50-over batter / batter-keeper so I would say bite the bullet and have two essentially different 50 and T20 teams.

[@matthewcole1250]

There was a photo doing the rounds on social media last summer of Charlotte Edwards, Knight and Scrivens out at some event together that very much felt like a vision of England captaincy past, present and future. The England hierarchy appear to take a similar view given the u19, 'A' captaincy etc. For me, the question mark around Scrivens is less her leadership than how her bat plays at the highest level. She has plenty of grit and application (more frankly than many current England batters) but perhaps lacks the natural technical ability of a Capsey, Bouchier or Seren Smale. I'm hopeful that she'll translate her domestic numbers internationally but I don't think it's a sure thing. I would let her prove that she can get into the team on merit before handing her the captaincy. There's also a risk, as alluded to by Richard Starkie, of putting a precociously confident 20-year old with no international record to speak of in charge of such a well-established group as the current England team. I also just don't quite see how we're at a crisis point with Heather Knight's form. She was comfortably England's best T20 player over the winter, a different format for sure but not irrelevant. And in the last 12 months, while NSB has scored almost twice as many ODI runs as anyone else in the team, Knight, Jones and Bouchier have been the only other reasonably good performers, each averaging in the high 30s. To be honest, the player with rather more reason to be looking over her shoulder is Beaumont. Personally, with a World Cup in India next year, I would keep faith with the veterans. That will surely be the end of the ODI road for Knight, Beaumont and Wyatt anyway, regardless of performance. It is a risk, and England's hand may be forced if one or more them goes into terminal decline in the next 16 months, but I think it offers the highest chance of a successful tournament.

[@matthewsmith-lk4qe]

3 formats is too much I guess now, so no one wants it in the current squad. I'd have different captains for different formats. Sophie e t20, Grace 50 over, nsb test

[@Hugh-nr5sx]

Good point.

[@benmarnoch4111]

Goodness what’s Heather Knight done to deserve this. At least wait until she has a couple of losses, before firing her and then presumably ending her career. Scrivens needs to do produce as a skipper a bit longer than this to deserve promotion.

[@katecook5079]

I still think that even with her talent and confidence, it's too much to ask to have Scrivens being captain as her first extended stint in the England team. She needs and deserves some time playing with them not as captain first. (And if her general play is not quite there for her to be in the team anyway, then it's definitely not quite her time!)

[@katecook5079]

I wonder if having a transition phase where eg Tammy does ODI captain but Grace always plays as vice, to get used to playing at that level before also captaining at that level, would be good as an option for a year or so. Because I do think that it's a big step up from domestic batting to constantly facing eg Australia bowling, or India, and it's a lot to ask her to do *that* as well as captain with no practice.

[@katecook5079]

(I would say it could be a transition year with HK still as captain, but... That doesn't seem likely).