As England is ready to come back strong in the 2nd match of the 2022 World Cup against the West Indies, there’s going to be big responsibility on Sophie Ecclestone who’s the most successful spinner for England. The left-arm orthodox bowler is ranked no.2 in the ODIs behind Australia’s Jess Jonassen. She’s also ranked no.1 in T20 format.
In her 5 years of international career, Ecclestone has taken 55 wickets in 39 ODIs. She has picked 33 wickets at home and 19 wickets in overseas conditions. In 2021, she took 16 wickets in 11 ODIs. She has performed extremely well against India and New Zealand taking 18 and 14 wickets against India and England respectively. The spinner has seen great success in the world cup tournament as she took 8 wickets in the 2020 T20 World Cup.
Leading into the World Cup, Ecclestone just took 2 wickets in 3 ODIs against Australia. In the warm-up matches against South Africa, she took 3 wickets for 23 runs. In the first match against Australia, she was the lone spinner in the side and got smashed for 77 runs in 10 overs.
After this performance, questions on England bowlers’ approach were raised to which Opener Tammy Beaumont responded to the media saying, “There’s no need to change the approach of the bowlers. They’ve been excellent in ODIs and T20s for us. Any Shrubsole, Kate Cross has been exceptional to us. Sophie Ecclestone is the best spinner in the world in my opinion.”
Ecclestone and the rest of the England bowlers will be looking to step up against West Indies on Wednesday at Dunedin.
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