Spinner Sophie Ecclestone says England remain confident they can regain the Ashes despite falling six points behind in the series following defeat in Saturday’s first T20 international at Edgbaston.
The four-wicket loss in Birmingham means England must win all five remaining games if they are to wrest the title back from Australia, beginning with Wednesday’s meeting at the Oval.
Ecclestone took 10 wickets as the hosts lost June’s Test at Trent Bridge and followed up with 2-24 in the T20 opener, but neither were enough to prevent the tourists opening up a six-point series lead.
Lose at the Oval and that gap will become unassailable with four games still to play for Heather Knight’s side, but Ecclestone insisted that, despite the odds, there remains the belief inside the camp of winning a first Ashes series since 2019.
“We’ve seen weirder things happen than that in cricket,” she said. “We’re up for the challenge, we know exactly what we need to do. We’re really not far away from them and that makes us confident going into the rest of the series.
“It’s obviously going to be a really hard task to beat the Aussies, five out of five as we go along, but we’re really confident going into tomorrow. We had the crowd behind us I think on Saturday.
“We’ve had conversations and a few meetings about how we want to go about our cricket tomorrow. We’re really confident going into it and hopefully we can pull it off.”
Around 20,000 were in attendance to see Australia pip England at Edgbaston on Saturday, following a women’s Test record crowd of 23,117 for day five at Trent Bridge.
The ECB has promised a Women’s Test will be held at Lord’s for the first time in 2026, while on Tuesday it was announced that England will face New Zealand at the home of cricket in a T20 international next July.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” said Ecclestone. “It’s so exciting to play in front of all these crowds. Playing at the grounds we are at the minute on Saturday nights, I think it’s amazing to look ahead to what we’ve got going on.
“It makes me really excited to play cricket. Having these crowds at these grounds, I think we’re just really excited to get there and entertain them and hopefully inspire the next generation to play cricket.”
Australia all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner echoed the same spirit that hosting women’s fixtures at major Test venues marks a welcome step forward.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “I’ve never played an Ashes game at either of those grounds (the Oval and Lord’s), so we haven’t played at top-tier venues.
“It’s something we all love to do. It’s something I’m looking forward to, hopefully we can come away with a win.”
Dottin among nominees for ICC Women’s Player of the Month for October
West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin has been named among the three nominees for the ICC Women’s Player of the Month award for the month of October.
Dottin made her comeback for the national side at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE, and was a driving force as the islanders reached their first semi-final at the event since 2018.
She was instrumental in victories over Scotland and Bangladesh, but saved her most valuable contributions for the latter stages, where she shone with the bat, ball and in the field in their group stage win over England, before producing a memorable individual display with 33 runs and four wickets in the thrilling semi-final defeat to eventual champions New Zealand.
Dottin will be going up against New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr and South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt for the award.
The nominees for the Men’s award are New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner, Pakistan’s Noman Ali and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada.
Kevin Sinclair replaced by Junior Sinclair in Harpy Eagles Super50 squad after internal report to GCB
All-rounder Kevin Sinclair will take no further part in the Guyana Harpy Eagles CG United Super50 Cup campaign in Trinidad and Tobago. The decision made by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) followed the submission of an internal report by the Harpy Eagles' management team that it was necessary to replace the player.
The GCB, in making the revelation, also announced that Kevin Sinclair will be replaced by Junior Sinclair in the squad at the tournament.
Though the GCB’s statement did not clarify if sub-standard performance is the reason behind Kevin Sinclair’s ejection from the squad, it pointed out that it was a “necessary squad adjustment.”
“Following an internal report from the Guyana Harpy Eagles management, it has been decided that Kevin Sinclair will no longer be participating in this year’s competition,” the statement read.
In the three matches played in the Super50 Cup, Kevin Sinclair tallied 14 runs and snared three wickets.
He made 14 from 16 balls against Windward Volcanoes and took 2-66 from 10 overs in the same match.
However, he did not bat in the rained-out contest against Combined Campuses and Colleges Marooners and was dismissed without a score against Barbados Pride and only took 1-26 from 10 overs in that same match.
The Guyana Harpy Eagles are winless after three matches.
A similar situation arose last year during the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament when organisers announced Kevin left the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad for “personal reasons.”
Kevin Sinclair’s departure opens the door for Junior Sinclair to take up a spot in the Harpy Eagles squad ahead of Tuesday’s contest against Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
Guyana Harpy Eagles Squad: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Matthew Nandu, Tevin Imlach (captain), Kevlon Anderson, Kemol Savory, Junior Sinclair, Keemo Paul (vice-captain), Ronaldo Aimohamed, Veerasammy Permaul, Isai Thorne, Ashmead Nedd, Nial Smith, Sylus Tyndall, Rampertab Ramnauth.
Salt confirmed as England wicketkeeper despite Buttler return for West Indies T20Is
Phil Salt will be wicketkeeper in England’s upcoming T20I series against West Indies as white-ball captain Jos Buttler looks to improve his captaincy.
Buttler has been ruled out with a calf strain but will return to England's squad for the five-match T20I series that begins on Saturday.
Until now, Salt has kept in just 13 of his 59 England appearances across all formats but has taken up the mantle for the ongoing ODI series against West Indies.
Buttler, on the other hand, has donned the gloves in 106 of his 108 T20Is.
Salt, though, is enjoying his new role.
"It's not something I've done a lot for England recently, but I enjoy keeping. I feel like that's where I offer most to the side," Salt said, as reported by ESPN.
"We've not had a chat about anything going forward. I'm just glad to be doing it at the moment."
While Salt is not guaranteed the gloves after this series, he will find comfort in Buttler's intent to optimise his captaincy by experimenting with a role in the field.
"I was going to give up the gloves and commit to being at mid-off and see how that felt. If it will help me with my captaincy it is something I am open to," Buttler told Sky Sports in September after being ruled out of the T20 series against Australia.
England are tied 1-1 in their ODI series against the West Indies with the decider to be played on Wednesday.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
