Jon Lewis believes that England’s spinners are now the envy of world cricket after they inspired a series triumph in India over the weekend.
Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn each took two wickets as the tourists hammered India in Saturday’s second T20, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead, before the home side claimed a consolation victory against a much-changed lineup in Sunday's final game in Mumbai.
Ecclestone, back in action for the first time since dislocating her shoulder this summer, finished as the series’ joint-leading wicket taker, while Dean and Glenn both averaged less than 12 with the ball.
“Our three spin bowlers are the envy of most teams around the world,” head coach Lewis said. “We’ve got absolutely world-class spin bowlers in Sarah Glenn, who is relentlessly accurate and doesn’t miss her areas very often at all.
“Charlie Dean has shown she’s incredibly versatile, can take wickets in the powerplay and then outside the powerplay she can really spin the ball. And obviously, Sophie Ecclestone’s a fantastic performer. She’s a world-class bowler.”
The tour rounds off this week with a one-off Test match from Thursday, and Lewis is intrigued to see how his side cope with the swift turnaround given that none of the players have played red-ball cricket since the summer’s Ashes series.
“For both sides, it’ll be a really interesting challenge,” he added. “It’s a format the girls don’t play very often and we’ve not got a lot of preparation, we’ve got three days between now and the start of the Test match.
“Most of the girls have been playing in the Big Bash - they took some red balls out with them but they all came back looking pretty new! We did some work in Oman and we’ve got four or five players outside of the [white-ball] squad who’ve been here training so some of them will be more ready than others.
"For us, it’s about getting our mindset right and trying to win the game of cricket that's in front of us. We’ll go out and give it a red-hot go and see where we end up.”
