England’s No 1: Ecclestone steps up with Ashes success in her sights

English cricket has one internationally top-ranked player. She is not at fortress Edgbaston vibing with the Hollies Stand, but preparing for the start of her own summer campaign. Sophie Ecclestone is the world’s No 1 female T20 and ODI bowler. She first hit that mark in 2020 and has held on pretty tightly since, unusually combining supremacy on the field with remaining below the radar off it.

In the words of her captain, Heather Knight: “Soph is pretty direct and to the point. What you see is what you get.” Still only 24, she has been playing international cricket since she was 17. A slow left armer with extraordinary accuracy and strength, she stands at 5ft 11in (1.8m), her big hands allowing lots of purchase on the ball.

For the England coach, Jon Lewis, it is the speed she bowls and the amount of revs she getsthat stand out. It has made her attractive to franchise competitions, this spring the subject of a bidding war, won by UP Warriorz, in the inaugural WPL.

A pre-Test training camp is taking place at Repton, a school of pinch-yourself facilities, where one side of a walkway nervous teenagers line up outside the GCSE exam hall while on the other England cricketers walk by, glistening from the gym.

A selection of benches look over the peachy field, one has a plaque for 1910 Wisden Cricketer of the Year, Douglas Carr: “Reptonian and cricket lover”.

Ecclestone has just come out of a strength and conditioning session followed by a long batting net. Her pony tail is as swishy as ever, she is polite, helpful, tired. The Ashes starts on Thursday with a Test, scheduled for five days for the first time in a women’s series. This will be followed by three ODIs and three T20s – with Trent Bridge, Edgbaston, the Oval and Lord’s