Who is Alana King? Latest member in Australia’s Squad for Women’s Ashes 2021-22

Cricket Australia on Wednesday announced their 15-member women’s squad that will play against England in one of the biggest cricketing competitions, The Ashes. While the squad consists of some prominent names from the country, the inclusion of uncapped leg-spinner Alana King has come as a surprise for many.

The 26 years old who contributed 16 wickets at 18.25 in Perth Scorcher’s maiden Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) victory last year, has got a spot in place of the injured Georgia Wareham and over the experienced Amanda-Jade Wellington whose exclusion wasn’t expected especially after her exceptional performance in the WBBL. Wellington, who has played a decent number of matches representing Australia in international cricket, recorded an unbelievable figure of 5/8 in the WBBL|07 eliminators knocked Brisbane Heat out, and finished as the leading wicket-taker of the season with 23 wickets at 16.26 as her team Adelaide Strikers ended up being the Runners-up of the season.

As reported by cricket.com.au, sharing the reason of choosing Alana over Amanda, Australian selector Shawn Flegler said,

“They’re slightly different bowlers. Alana is a little bit quicker through the air and attacks the stumps more, while Amanda is what you’d probably say a genuine leg-spinner, where she gives the ball a lot of air and spins the ball hard.”

Alana Maria King will be in action against England this Ashes 😃

Here’s a glimpse 👇 pic.twitter.com/yUi1JyoX3e

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 12, 2022

Further, he mentioned that Wareham has played a special role for the Aussies in the past years, and they believe that Alana has the ability to play a similar role a little better than Amanda. Having said that, he also stated that Amanda will still get chances in the matches to come and is currently a part of Australia’s ‘A’ squad that is led by the wicketkeeper batter Georgia Redmayne and includes the experienced Elyse Villani, the star youngster Stella Campbell and 11 more players who have the potential to make it to the main squad. The same report also shared Flegler’s comment on the opportunities for the ‘A’ squad. He said,

Australia A squad will play three T20s and as many one-day matches against England A team concurrently during the Women’s Ashes.

Here’s the squad 👇 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/jAFPfPn2nx

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 12, 2022

“We will try and provide some playing opportunities for those in the senior squad to play in A game (as well) … but we’ve got a pretty tight bubble around them, so if they play in those A games, we’re going to have to have some strict protocols around what it looks like on game day.”

Meanwhile, Heather Knight led England announced its 17 members main squad and 12 members ‘A’ last month itself.

Squads for 2021-22 Women’s Ashes (AUS v ENG)

Australia: Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes (vc), Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Meg Lanning (c), Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck

England: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Maia Bouchier, Katherine Brunt, Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Tash Farrant, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver (vc), Anya Shrubsole, Mady Villiers, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Danni Wyatt

Squads for Australia A v England A

Australia A: Georgia Redmayne (c), Maitlan Brown, Erin Burns, Stella Campbell, Nicole Faltum, Tess Flintoff, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Phoebe Litchfield, Katie Mack, Courtney Sippel, Molly Strano, Elyse Villani, Georgia Voll, Amanda-Jade Wellington

England A: Emily Arlott, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Alice Davidson-Richards, Georgia Elwiss, Kirstie Gordon, Eve Jones, Beth Langston, Emma Lamb, Bryony Smith, Ellie Threlkeld, Issy Wong

The oldest cricket rivals compete for the Ashes victory from January 20 onwards with a point-based multi-format series starting with 3 T20Is followed by a test and then three ODIs, ending on February 8. On the other hand, the ‘A’ team plays 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs beginning on the same day as Ashes but ending early on February 2.