After an eventful year in Women’s cricket, we are into another year with a marquee event, the WT20I World Cup 2024, which will be taking place in Bangladesh. All the teams are prepping up for the big event, which is scheduled later in the year, and owing to the preparations, the teams are looking to fill in gaps and alternatives. 

Looking at the England team, the last time they won a championship was in 2017, and since then, they have not been up to the mark with their performances. For a long time, England have relied on the likes of Charlotte Edwards, Katherine Brunt, Sarah Taylor and many more. Now, that they haven’t been around for a while, Danni Wyatt, Nat Sciver Brunt and Sophie Ecclestone have been carrying the burden of the team. 

With the tour to the White Ferns’ land New appears on the cards along with the Women’s Premier League, a few of the senior players will be joining the national side after the first games owing to their WPL contracts.

This gives England a chance to extract some talents and make their existing team even more stronger and versatile. What this does, therefore, is that it gives them the chance to include a young and enterprising quartet.

So who are we talking about here? The new emerging faces in England’s side that we shall see soon in their ranks include- Bess Heath, Linsey Smith, Hollie Armitage and Danielle Gibson. 

Having said that, let us make an attempt to understand the value they can bring to England’s women’s cricket side.

Hollie Armitage

The 26-year-old, Hollie Armitage is a supremely talented all-rounder and has been rising through the ranks with her exceptional performances lately. She is yet to make her debut for the England senior Women’s team, but England’s coach, Jon Lewis, believes that Hollie will be an invaluable addition to the set-up. She brings a unique skill set to the table with her ability to bowl leg-break apart from her consistent and destructive batting. 

In her last 10 T20 innings, while playing for the Central District Women’s team in the Women’s Super Smash, she has amassed 318 runs with an amazing average of 32. Having played this tournament in New Zealand, Hollie will be able to adapt to these conditions comfortably while touring with England’s senior team.

Linsey Smith 

In the absence of Sophie Ecclestone, England have found an identical replacement in Linsey Smith, who is also a slow left-arm spinner. The coach believes that if there’s another best left-arm spinner in the country other than Sophie, then it has to be Linsey. She has already expressed herself at the greatest stage in the nine WT20Is that she has played by picking up 13 wickets with an amazing economy of 6.06. 

In her last 10 T20 games, whether playing in Super Smash or Big Bash League, Linsey has managed to scalp ten wickets. Undoubtedly, she will be looking to seize the opportunity and make it count in the upcoming WT20I series against New Zealand starting on the 19th of March. 

Danielle Gibson

The 22-year-old Danielle Gibson has another chance to express herself at the greatest stage. Having made her T20 debut already, she wasn’t able to capitalise on the opportunity and could only pick up three wickets in seven games. Now that the management have backed her up, she will be looking to turn things around for herself. 

Being a bowling all-rounder, Gibson possesses the capability to provide those extra runs batting down the order and being a right-arm medium bowler, she can bowl with the new ball as well. In Adelaide Strikers’ triumph in the WBBL 2023, Danielle was a key player for the Strikers, having scored valuable runs and picked up crucial wickets. 

Bess Heath

The 22-year-old wicket-keeper batter, Bess Heath may look sweet, but she possesses some serious hitting skills, especially when it comes to the shortest format. She has already featured for England’s senior team in one WODI and one WT20I, which wasn’t enough to showcase what she can cause on the cricketing field. 

Bess Heath is a top-order batter and knows how to smash long balls. In the WBBL 2023, while playing for the Brisbane Heat against Hobart Hurricanes, Bess hammered a half-century in just 26 deliveries with the help of five boundaries and three maximums and that too against the likes of Shabnim Ismail. 

With these four new guns, the England Women’s team will not only be looking to get over with the first few games until the senior players come back, but they will be having a close watch over these girls to provide themselves with enough opportunities to showcase what they have to offer. With a few names missing out in the White Ferns camp as well, probably fair to say that England’s youngsters will be able to make these opportunities count and make attempts to cement a place for themselves in the senior side.