New Zealand women's team to play a Warm-up game against England A

The upcoming New Zealand tour of England will commence from September 1^st. The team has gone through many changes until now. While Amelia Kerr and Rosemary Mair withdrew, three of the White Ferns star performers are part of the final squad and will play together for the first

time this year.

New Zealand Women's Cricket team — New Zealand Women’s Cricket team. PC: WhiteFerns/Twitter

Suzie Bates, Captain Sophie Devine and Vice-captain Amy Satterthwaite will be part of the New Zealand women’s cricket squad that will face the England A team in Derby on Monday. Bates suffered a shoulder injury in October last year during New Zealand’s ODI series and later underwent surgery for it. Being inactive since then, she will be making her comeback on this tour. Captain Devine too had withdrawn from the team during a home series against Australia at the end of March this year to take a break while dealing with fatigue.

Prior to the team’s only warm-up match, Coach Bob Carter said, “It’ll be really nice to have Suzie, Sophie, and Amy all playing in the same team. We want to make sure we’re using this tour, all the 50-over games as almost that first pillar of our preparation ready for the World Cup.” While there are three upcoming T20 internationals, Carter and the team will focus more on the one-day games to build up and prepare themselves for the upcoming World Cup to be held in New Zealand in March-April next year.

New Zealand will be able to utilize 14 players in the warm-up game, leaving out only pace bowler Lea Tahuhu, who is still recovering from foot surgery, and newly joined all-rounder Maddy Green. Wicketkeeper and batter Katey Martin said while the team experienced a lot of rain during training over the past week, she felt that they were ready to take on the one-day world champs in England.

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Martin stated, “It’s probably the best-prepared squad that we have been for a tour that I’ve been involved with for a very long time. I know on our day we can definitely beat them.”

New Zealand Squad for England Tour:

Sophie Devine (Captain), Amy Satterthwaite (Vice-captain), Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Claudia Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Leigh Kasperek, Jess Kerr, Katey Martin, Jessica McFayden, Thamsyn Newton, Molly Penfold, Hannah Rowe, Maddy Green and Lea Tahuhu.

Source: stuff.co.nz