For a moment, Jon Lewis and Heather Knight appeared to be heading into a series with just about their first-choice team, having navigated the start of their New Zealand tour this winter without a smattering of Women’s Premier League stars.
Alas, not quite, as Knight revealed on Friday that all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss Saturday’s opener against Pakistan at Edgbaston after undergoing a “minor medical procedure”. Happily, though, that will be the only game for which England will have to do without the world’s best player, Sciver-Brunt already pencilled in to return for the second of the three T20s next Friday.
Where the absences of Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Alice Capsey and Danni Wyatt at the start of the New Zealand tour were spun as a positive in the shape of a chance to fact-find, this month’s games against Pakistan are all about fine-tuning as Lewis seeks to nail down the one or two places in his XI still up for grabs less than five months out from the World Cup in Bangladesh.
Among them is the seam-bowling all-rounder slot, for which Freya Kemp is set to - counterintuitively - get chance to stake her claim as a specialist batter, England taking a cautious approach to the teenager’s recovery from a flare-up of her serious back injury. The hope, though, is that she will be back bowling at 100 per cent by the time of October’s trip to Bangladesh.
“There's some good young all-rounders coming through,” Knight said on Friday. “Dani Gibson has been impressive, particularly with the ball at the back end.
"Freya comes in and she'll bat at five, which is a cool opportunity for her. Freya is a massive, clean ball-striker and a left-hander, which we don't have a lot of in England. When she's back bowling, she'll become a real asset.”
The other significant question looking towards the World Cup comes at the top of the order, where Maia Bouchier has been backed to open in this series following a spectacular breakthrough winter.
In a significant show of faith in the 25-year-old, both Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont have been left out of this squad entirely, Lewis explaining that he would rather have the experienced pair playing domestic cricket than running drinks. He insists, though, that both remain firmly in top-order contention and Dunkley served notice of her return to form with a century for South East Stars at Beckenham earlier this week.
“Even though those amazing players are left out it still feels like they are part of the group and they could come in any minute,” said spinner Sarah Glenn. “It also feels like anyone else could be dropped out at any minute.
“Obviously you don’t want to be dropped but it’s a special place to be in terms of how competitive it is and how we’re pushing the game forward. It makes you work hard on your game as well and it’s positive signs to see that happening.”