Bharath Ramaraj
Alana King, the leg-spinner, took nine wickets in a one-off Test against England in the 2024-25 Women’s Ashes. In that multi-format series, King also reaped a rich harvest in the ODIs, taking 11 scalps. In total, King took 23 wickets at a mind-numbing average of 11.17. Meanwhile, Georgia Wareham, another leg-spinner, plucked eight wickets at just 10.5.
Some months later, in the England-India T20I series, the trio of Deepti Sharma, Shree Charani and Radha Yadav combined to take a whopping 25 wickets between them. None of them averaged over 18 in that series. Although India’s spinners weren’t able to run through the opponent in the ODI rubber, the narrative now surrounding England is that their batters have enough problems while facing spin. And with the conditions in the ongoing 50-over World Cup set to assist the spinners, their methods and conviction will be put to the test.
To some extent, the criticism levelled at England’s batters is well-founded. To examine the flaws, just zoom your lens on the second ODI played between England and Australia in Melbourne this year. King gave away a mere 25 runs in 10 overs and took a four-wicket haul. From England’s perspective, hardly any player was willing to go right back and take advantage of the shorter-length deliveries, or venture down the track in order to take the ball on the full.
The only batter who seemed eager to use the crease against King was Nat-Sciver Brunt. No wonder she cracked one out of the only two fours scored against King in that innings. It is obvious that King is a spinner of pedigree, but you can’t allow a quality spinner to bowl the way she wants to. In this context, just compare how Sophie Devine, the New Zealand skipper, tackled King in this World Cup with England’s rather timid displays against the same bowler.
England will begin their World Cup campaign with a match against a formidable South African side in Guwahati. In the previous game played at this very ground, between India and Sri Lanka, enough deliveries were gripping in the first innings. The onus will be firmly on England’s batters to carve a way out of the spin puzzle.
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