England Girls’s large summer season of cricket: Charlotte Edwards’ facet to play first-ever Take a look at at Lord’s forward of T20 World Cup

It’s gearing as much as be a monumental summer season for Charlotte Edwards and England’s Girls’s cricket facet.

Video games are coming thick and quick forward of this yr’s Girls’s T20 World Cup, which might be performed on dwelling soil for the primary time since 2009.

This yr’s hosts will play a number of limited-overs warm-up sequence towards New Zealand and India forward of the World Cup, with Sky Sports activities set to broadcast all of England’s group-stage matches with no subscription on the Sky Sports activities App.

However there’s extra. After the World Cup, England will lastly play their first-ever Take a look at match at Lord’s, in what is ready to be a historic second for the game.

What makes this summer season so particular for England? Who’re they taking part in? And the place is the World Cup being held?

Lord’s breaks document attendance for first England ladies’s Take a look at

Nat Sciver-Brunt and her group will face India in a Take a look at match on the House of Cricket on July 10, 5 days after the Girls’s T20 World Cup ultimate, which may even be performed at Lord’s.

England have performed 17 Girls’s ODI matches and three T20 video games previously at Lord’s, and pleasure is constructing to see Edwards’ facet take centre stage on the iconic floor.

This summer season, Lord’s is ready to host 21 ladies’s matches, from worldwide cricket to home competitions, and 4 World Cup matches.

Now, with lower than 10 weeks to go, the Marylebone Cricket Membership introduced that 23,207 tickets have already been offered for England’s Take a look at match towards India, exceeding the best attendance document for a ladies’s Take a look at in England.

“We’re thrilled to have already broken this significant record within women’s cricket,” chief government and secretary of the MCC, Robert Lawson, mentioned.

“Lord’s is such a special place and to be hosting our first ever women’s Test is truly exciting – for us as a club, for the players and for the record crowds that will witness history in the making.

“With the match not beginning till July 10 and the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup simply earlier than it, we’re positive that ticket gross sales will proceed to surge. There’s nothing like a Lord’s Take a look at, and we wish to make this first-ever ladies’s Take a look at on the House of Cricket a momentous event for all concerned.”

Speaking in 2024 when the news was first announced, former England player and ex-MCC Chair of Cricket, Claire Taylor, said: “I am delighted at this information and most significantly for the gamers who’ll make historical past taking part in on this fixture in 2026.

“Young girls playing up and down the country can now aspire to play Test match cricket at the home of cricket. It is a clear demonstration that cricket is a game for all.”

England have not lifted the Girls’s T20 World Cup in 17 years… may this be the yr?

After the frustration of being knocked out within the group stage of the 2024 ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup, Edwards and her group have the prospect to bounce again and are completely positioned to take action.

The England Girls’s head coach named her squads for his or her upcoming World Cup final week, and it incorporates a raft of star gamers, together with Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and rising star Tilly Corteen-Coleman.

Edwards was a part of the England squad that final received a ladies’s T20 World Cup again in 2009. That event was hosted on dwelling soil, however since then, the group has completed as runners-up 3 times.

“It’s so special,” Edwards advised the ECB, talking on what it was wish to win the World Cup at dwelling.

“It’s even more special to do it at home. And at the home of cricket. July 5 [T20 World Cup final date] has been on my calendar for a while, and I really hope we can do something special and lift a World Cup at home.”

Who’re the favourites to win the Girls’s T20 World Cup?

Alongside Australia and India, England are favourites to win this summer season’s Girls’s T20 World Cup.

A win, Edwards believes, would supply one other platform for ladies’s cricket within the nation, improve participation amongst ladies and ladies and assist to push the game on to attain nice issues.

“I just think it would be an amazing achievement for the group,” Edwards mentioned. “I just think it would be an amazing achievement for the group and a real game-changer for the sport.

“We have seen the impression successful an enormous trophy has had for different groups, just like the Lionesses and the Pink Roses, and we simply wish to emulate what they’ve completed and supply that platform for ladies’s cricket.

“We want to provide that platform for women’s cricket. It’s in an amazing place at the moment but we can really springboard it onto bigger and better things.”

England suffered heartache on the 2022 ODI World Cup, the place Australia beat Heather Knight’s facet by 71 runs within the ultimate.

Having not received the T20 World Cup in so lengthy, a victory within the annual showpiece, notably at dwelling, could be huge for England and ladies’s cricket.

“I think we’re a very different team,” Edwards mentioned, reflecting on England’s woes in 2022 and 2024. “We’re coming here to win it. We know it’s going to be really hard.

“There are some great groups on the market. However to have the ability to suppose that we will play in a World Cup ultimate at Lord’s is motivating us each day.”

Who can impress for England’s Girls this summer season?

England had been dealt a tricky blow on the eve of their ODI sequence towards New Zealand, with captain Sciver-Brunt set to overlook the opening three matches of the summer season as a consequence of a minor left calf tear.

Her omission is considered a precautionary measure, with Dean set to captain the group, whereas Maia Bouchier has additionally been drafted into the squad for batting cowl.

Lauren Bell has emerged as probably the greatest quick bowlers in ladies’s cricket following her breakout season in 2021.

She has featured in three World Cups and two Ashes sequence since then, and brought 50 wickets for an economic system of seven.14 throughout 36 Girls’s T20I matches.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge is one other participant to control this summer season, following her epic performances within the Huge Bash League over the winter, with the Surrey batter having completed third within the batters’ standings, amassing 432 runs which included 4 half-centuries.

Uncapped 18-year-old Corteen-Coleman can also be more likely to make her debut at some stage this summer season, with the Surrey left-arm spinner having loved a meteoric rise to the England facet since debuting in The Hundred in 2024.

Will England be feeling the strain?

Sky Sports activities Cricket analyst Michael Atherton delivered his verdict on England’s possibilities of successful this summer season:

“It’s a long time ago, but the last time the Women’s T20 World Cup was held on home soil, England won it, so there’s that natural home advantage, but with it being at home comes a little bit of added scrutiny and pressure as well, inevitably.

“However England have terrific gamers. They’re beneath new administration, new captain, and a brand new coach.

“Charlotte Edwards will have them well drilled, I have no doubt about that.

“They have loads of power in depth and a few top-class gamers, so they need to be within the shake-up.

“I mean, it’s a hard tournament to call. There are some very good teams. I think the standard across the board is improving all the time, so it’s getting more competitive.

“Clearly, Australia are going to be a really powerful group to beat.

“But England, with home advantage and some good players, should be in the shake-up.”

Knight: ‘It is an opportunity to go away a legacy’

England batter Heather Knight advised Sky Sports activities:

“The focus now is women’s cricket at the World Cup, so it’s really exciting, not too far away now and a chance for us to do something really special as a side.

“House help was enormous for us in 2017, the way in which the crowds constructed and the ultimate at Lord’s, it is tremendous particular.

“It’s a chance to have a real impact on the sport in your country and leave a legacy. If we do our job right and have success this summer, we can leave a real legacy on the sport of women’s cricket in this country.

“It took a bit little bit of time for that success to see adjustments and I feel the panorama could be very totally different now and, notably in ladies’s cricket, there’s the construction beneath the sport, the home recreation’s skilled. It is much more regular to be a ladies’s cricketer; there’s much more visibility.

“You’d hope now if we have that success and things go well for us, the structures are in place to make the most of it and really make it a huge moment. We’ve seen what the Lionesses and Red Roses have done. I’ve followed those very closely and know some of the players.

“We wish to do one thing related and hopefully encourage youngsters to make ladies in cricket actually regular and actually nice.”

England’s summer schedule

Cricket is coming thick and fast this summer, with England Women’s first set to face off against New Zealand on Sunday in a three-match ODI series, before they face the White Ferns in a T20 series.

Here’s England Women’s summer fixtures:

England ladies v New Zealand

Could 10: 1st Metro Financial institution ODI – Banks Properties Riverside, Durham, 11am
Could 13: 2nd Metro Financial institution ODI – The County Floor, Northampton, 1pm
Could 16: third Metro Financial institution ODI – Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 11am
Could 20: 1st Vitality IT20 – The Central Co-op County Floor, Derby, 6:30pm
Could 23: 2nd Vitality IT20 – The Spitfire Floor, Canterbury, 2:30pm
Could 25: third Vitality IT20 – The first Central County Floor, Hove, tbc

England Girls v India

Could 28: 1st Vitality IT20 – Ambassador Cruise Line Floor, Chelmsford, 6:30pm
Could 30: 2nd Vitality IT20 – Seat Distinctive Stadium, Bristol, tbc
June 2: third Vitality IT20 – The Cooper Associates County Floor, Taunton, 6:30pm
July 10: 1st Rothesay Take a look at – Lord’s, London, 11am

England Girls v Eire

September 1: 1st Metro Financial institution ODI – The Uptonsteel County Floor, Leicester, 1pm
September 3: 2nd Metro Financial institution ODI – The Central Co-op County Floor, Derby, 1pm
September 6: third Metro Financial institution ODI – Go to Worcestershire New Highway, Worcester, 11am

England Girls T20 World Cup fixtures

June 12: England v Sri Lanka – Edgbaston, Birmingham, 6.30pm
June 16: England v Eire – Utilita Bowl, Southampton, 6.30pm
June 20: England v Scotland – Headingley, Leeds, 6.30pm
June 24: England v West Indies – Lord’s, London, 6.30pm
June 27: England v New Zealand – The Kia Oval, London, 6.30pm

Watch England Girls’s first ODI match towards New Zealand this Sunday at from 10.30am, reside on Sky Sports activities Cricket. Watch the Girls’s T20 World Cup reside on Sky Sports activities with chosen video games streamed totally free through the Sky Sports activities App. Not obtained Sky? Stream cricket contract-free on NOW.