England looks to overtake leaders Australia in ICC Women’s Championship

England has a chance to claim pole position in the ICC Women’s Championship table if it can blank leaders Australia when they go head to head in round three of the ICC Women’s Championship, which starts in Taunton on Tuesday.

A 3-0 series victory would elevate Charlotte Edwards’ side, who currently lie in sixth position on seven points, to the top of the table. A 2-1 win would also improve England’s position to joint second, though in that scenario the Southern Stars would also increase its advantage to three points. Standing in the host’s way is an in-form Australia side that has secured victories against Pakistan and the West Indies, without reply, in the opening two rounds of the ICC Women’s Championship to date. Should it maintain its undefeated run, a 3-0 win for Meg Lanning’s team would see it increase its lead to seven points over second placed South Africa, while a 2-1 triumph would see its lead at the top stretch to five points.

Australia will also be motivated to regain the Women’s Ashes it lost on home soil the last time the two sides met in 2013. In fact, Australia hasn’t won a series in England since 2001 and has only claimed the coveted prize once (in 2010-11) in that period.

The ICC Women’s Championship is a qualifying tournament for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 and is being participated in by Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The top four sides from the ICC Women’s Championship will gain automatic qualification for the event proper which is to be staged in England, while the bottom four sides will get a final chance of qualification through the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in 2017. The tournament structure sees each team will play each other in one home or away series that will include three ODIs over a two and a half year period. As such, each side is guaranteed at least 21 ODIs over the tournament period.

Looking ahead to the start of the women’s Ashes, England captain Charlotte Edwards commented: “The 2015 Women’s Ashes is possibly the most eagerly anticipated series that I have ever been involved with during my international playing career. The excitement throughout the England squad is tangible – we have been preparing hard for this for a long time now, and everyone is ready for the action to get underway on Tuesday in Taunton.

“This summer we hope that more fans than ever before will come to watch us play. The seven match multi-format series – involving for the first time ever, two fully professional international women’s teams –gives us the perfect platform to inspire women and girls everywhere to love and play cricket. Australia are currently ICC Women’s World Cup and ICC World T20 champions, but we have won the Women’s Ashes back-to-back in 2013 and 2014, so the series is sure to be closely contested, and we will be doing everything we can to make it three in a row.”

Australia captain Meg Lanning said: “It’s been a big 12 months for the Southern Stars and we’re looking forward to taking on England in the upcoming Women’s Ashes series. The multi-format series has been a great success and we are looking forward to another competitive series against England and will be doing everything in our power to win back the Women’s Ashes. It will not be an easy task, particularly as we have not won the Women’s Ashes on English soil since 2001. England are our fiercest rivals and we anticipate a competitive series that will go down to the wire.

“The ODI Series will be particularly important for both teams as we will be playing for Women’s Ashes points as well as ICC Women’s Championship points. The introduction of the ICC Women’s Championship has been a very positive step for women’s cricket and as the reigning World Cup champions, these matches are crucial to our campaign towards the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup in England. Cricket contests between Australia and England have a special place in the hearts and minds of the players and public and we, like the Australian men’s team, hope that we can inspire the next generation of players and fans and do our nation proud in our respective Ashes series.”

England head into series with the two leading batters in the latest ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Batters. England wicket-keeper Sarah Taylor lies on top of the rankings and holds a 15-point lead over the experienced Edwards who will be aiming to lead guide her nation to its third consecutive Ashes victory. Next in line is Southern Stars skipper Lanning who will be aiming for upward movement and is just four points behind Edwards in third place. Lanning is one of three Australians inside the top 10 and that list includes Jessica Cameron (in ninth place on 580 points) and Alex Blackwell who is 19 points behind in 10th. There are three more players inside the top 20 in contention in this series; Australia’s Ellyse Perry (13th), as well as England duo Lydia Greenway (17th) and Heather Knight (20th).

In the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Bowlers, the top 10 features England pair Katherine Brunt (third), who will be aiming to reduce the seven-point deficit on West Indies star Anisa Mohammed, and Jenny Gunn (fifth). Erin Osborne is the highest ranked Australia bowler in 10th place and Perry lies one place, and 17 points, behind her team-mate. England’s Laura Marsh (19th) is named alongside a number of bowlers on both sides who will be looking to improve their rankings over the course of the series.

Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies continues to lead the all-rounders’ tables, however Australia’s Perry, who lies in third place on 296 points, will be looking to close the 11-point gap on India’s Jhulan Goswami.

Squads

England (from): Charlotte Edwards (captain), Katherine Brunt, Kathryn Cross, Georgia Elwiss, Lydia Greenway, Rebecca Grundy, Jenny Gunn, Amy Jones, Heather Knight, Laura Marsh, Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Sarah Taylor (wk), Lauren Winfield

Australia (from): Meg Lanning (captain), Kristin Beams, Alex Blackwell, Nicole Bolton, Jess Cameron, Sarah Coyte, Rene Farrell, Holly Ferling, Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Erin Osborne, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani

Forthcoming fixtures:

England v Australia

21 July – First ODI, Taunton

23 July – Second ODI, Bristol

26 July – Third ODI, Worcester

Points table:

Note – two points for a win, no point for a loss and one point for a no-result

ICC Women’s Player Rankings on ODIs (as on 19 July, ahead of England-Australia series):

Batters

Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Ranking

1 Sarah Taylor Eng 746 40.83 803 v Aus at Chelmsford 2009

2 C. Edwards Eng 731 38.49 749 v NZ at Lincoln 2015

3 Meg Lanning Aus 727*! 45.64 727 v WI at Bowral 2014

4 Mithali Raj Ind 679 48.82 839 v Aus at Baroda Vadodar 2004

5 Suzie Bates NZ 674 36.54 734 v WI at Kingston 2013

6 Stafanie Taylor WI 657 43.26 765 v Ind at St Kitts (WP) 2012

7 H. Kaur Ind 643 35.62 678 v SA at Bangalore 2014

8 Deandra Dottin WI 620 28.73 650 v NZ at Kingston 2013

9 Jessica Cameron Aus 580 37.63 660 v Pak at Brisbane 2014

10 Alex Blackwell Aus 561 33.16 683 v Ind at Canberra 2008

Selected Rankings:

Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Ranking

13 Ellyse Perry Aus 542! 36.03 542 v WI at Bowral 2014

17 Lydia Greenway Eng 517 29.79 664 v NZ at Lincoln 2012

20 Heather Knight Eng 497 28.11 537 v Ind at Scarborough 2014

25 Nicole Bolton Aus 418*! 53.22 418 v WI at Bowral 2014

30 Natalie Sciver Eng 389*! 38.71 389 v NZ at Lincoln 2015

31 Erin Osborne Aus 385* 24.50 398 v WI at Sydney 2014

Bowling

Rank Player Team Points Average Economy Highest Ranking

****1 Jhulan Goswami Ind 765 20.98 3.16 796 v Eng at Chennai 2007

2 A. Mohammed WI 672 17.38 3.22 704 v Aus at Sydney 2014

3 Katherine Brunt Eng 665 22.65 3.32 796 v Ind at Mumbai 2013

4 Stafanie Taylor WI 659 18.14 3.08 768 v NZ at Kingston 2013

5 Jenny Gunn Eng 619 27.66 3.75 693 v Ind at Scarborough 2014

6 Sana Mir Pak 602 23.28 3.41 610 v SA at Sharjah 2015

7 Shibnam Ismail SA 583* 18.40 3.45 595 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2014

8 D. van Niekerk SA 579* 16.13 3.24 583 v Ind at Bangalore 2014

9 Shanel Daley WI 568 22.09 3.33 664 v NZ at St Kitts (WP) 2014

10 Erin Osborne Aus 564 25.82 3.98 581 v Eng at Melbourne 2014

Selected Rankings:

11 Ellyse Perry Aus 547 24.00 4.29 698 v Ind at Mumbai 2012

19 Laura Marsh Eng 461 27.61 3.88 711 v Aus at Perth 2011

21 Sarah Coyte Aus 442* 20.94 4.24 482 v Eng at Hove 2013

24 Jess Jonassen Aus 441*! 21.46 4.26 441 v WI at Bowral 2014

27 Anya Shrubsole Eng 422* 27.35 4.36 442 v NZ at Bay Oval 2015

29 Julie Hunter Aus 414* 24.87 3.68 437 v Pak at Brisbane 2014

38 Rene Farrell Aus 368* 27.27 3.92 456 v Eng at Perth 2011

41 Rebecca Grundy Eng 346*! 19.71 3.45 346 v NZ at Lincoln 2015

42 Kate Cross Eng 343*! 23.15 4.36 343 v NZ at Lincoln 2015

46 Megan Schutt Aus 335* 21.30 4.40 367 v Eng at Hove 2013

All-rounders

Rank Player Team Points Highest Ranking

1 Stafanie Taylor WI 433 560 v NZ at Kingston 2013

2 J. Goswami Ind 307! 307 v NZ at Bangalore 2015

3 Ellyse Perry Aus 296! 296 v WI at Bowral 2014

4 D. van Niekerk SA 281*/*! 281 v Pak at Sharjah 2015

5 Suzie Bates NZ 255! 255 v Ind at Bangalore 2015