Heather Knight in England’s lead-up to the Commonwealth Games during the multi-format series against South Africa missed a couple of T20I games having felt an irritation in her hip joint. The injury failed to settle down and when Heather Knight’s absence from the Games was confirmed, her unavailability for the Hundred too was informed.
London Spirits in search of a skipper to replace Heather Knight have invested in 21-year-old, yet very impressive off-spinner, Charlie Dean who’s got the role ahead of big faces in Beth Mooney, Megan Schutt and Amelia Kerr. Charlie Dean on receiving the honour of captaining the side has said, “It’s a great opportunity for me, I’m really looking forward to leading this team. Obviously, we are gutted that Heather can’t join us this year, but we have an exciting squad filled with experience and young talent and we can’t wait to get started on Friday.”
Charlie Dean in the 2021 inaugural season of the Hundred, impressed skipper Heather Knight, having bagged 6 wickets for London Spirit at an average of 28.00 and an economy rate of 7.09. Heather Knight, fast-tracked Charlie Dean and she soon was playing in the three lions shirt for England.
The Commonwealth Games star Alice Capsey will be back in action for Oval Invincibles in The Hundred starting tomorrow 💚#TheHundred #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/uCicd89IUx
— Female Cricket #B2022 (@imfemalecricket) August 10, 2022
Charlie Dean debuted for England last summer against New Zealand at home and had an impressive start to her international career having bagged 10 wickets in the 5-match ODI series. In the side’s next series against Australia having gone wicketless for a couple of games, she was dropped from the side. A late entry into the English XI during the ICC ODI World Cup early this year saw England’s fortune change with Dean in the XI as she picked up 11 wickets in 6 games and was wicketless only on one occasion, it was again against Australia and in the final. Her best at World Cup had come against one of the best in India with figures of 4-23. In England’s recently concluded 3-match ODI series against South Africa, Charlie Dean topped the wickets chart with 8 wickets to her name in the series.
Charlie Dean not just with the ball, but has been handy with the bat as well for her side. With time a bankable all-rounder in Charlie Dean will be polished for the world to witness. In the domestic T20 competition, Charlotte Edwards Cup early in the summer, playing for Southern Vipers, Dean finished as the second highest wicket-taker with 12 wickets to her name in only 5 games at an average of 8.25 and an economy of 4.95 with the best figures of 3/16.
Despite the rapid growth Dean has had over the last 12 months for her to have stepped up to all of those expectations shows the top fabric cricketer Charlie Dean is. She’ll now be stepping into the big boots of Heather Knight and it’ll really be very interesting to see how Charlie Dean who’s been very impressive with the ball, goes about leading a side in London Spirits at the Hundred as they take the field on the 12th of August in their opener against runner ups of the inaugural edition in Southern Brave.