England Women’s Charlie Dean opening T20 in India

England Women’s Charlie Dean opening T20 in India

England Women may have to manage without Charlie Dean in their Twenty20 series opener against India on Wednesday, after the off-spinner got a stomach bug during the new England A series with India.

Jon Lewis, the England head coach, had expected to send the 22-year-old as a third spin choice during the visit, yet the captain, Heather Knight, said Dean was all the while recovering from sickness and that it was in uncertainty whether she would be good for the opener in Mumbai on Wednesday

Really promising news for England is the logical return of Sophie Ecclestone to international action after the world No 1's shoulder injury, which kept her out of the series against Sri Lanka in September. On Tuesday, Knight portrayed the left‑arm spinner as "fit and firing

England face India in three T20s at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, followed by a four-day Test - incredibly, the first time in 18 years that England's women have played a Test in the subcontinent. It is England's first assignment since a T20 series defeat against Sri Lanka at home in September and could demonstrate a harsh test of their ability to deal with subcontinental conditions.

Against Sri Lanka, Knight's side were bowled out for 104 and 116, with 15 of those 20 wickets falling to spin. Accordingly, Lewis organized a crisis batting training camp in Mumbai in October, involving the cutting edge group of Alice Capsey, Sophia Dunkley, Danielle Gibson, Bess Heath, Freya Kemp and Emma Lamb. The aim was to offer a taster of what is to come in the following several years, which will feature the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the 2025 50-over edition in India.

Lewis has depicted the camp as "a great learning experience" for a gathering of players who are relative tenderfoots in Indian circumstances. England's last visit through India was in 2019, meaning that 11 individuals from the ongoing squad have never played international cricket there, although two of those 11 - Capsey and Lauren Bell - featured in the Women's Premier League in March.

The latest bilateral experience between the sides, in September 2022, finished in controversy after England lost the final one-day international at Master's after Deepti Sharma's Mankad run-out of Dean backing up at the non-striker's end.