Alice Capsey is working on developing her skills as a wicketkeeper, in a bid to become a back-up keeping option for England amid crowded competition for places in their T20I batting line-up.
Speaking to Wisden Women’s Cricket Weekly podcast, Capsey said that she wasn’t sure what role she would play for England in their T20I side this summer. After making her debut in the format in 2022 batting at No.3 while Heather Knight was out injured, she spent the first half of last summer batting at No.6, before moving up to No.3 after Nat Sciver-Brunt was ruled out of England’s T20I series against India. She was left out of the final T20I of the summer when Maia Bouchier came into the side.
“I think at the moment, I'm probably more in that middle-order [role],” said Capsey. “We're so lucky that we've got probably two of the best batters in the world in Nat and Heather, and at the moment, they're fitting into that three and four role. But.. down the line I've got a lot of future ambitions to be back in that No.3 role. I'd love to bat three in all formats for England. That's definitely an ambition down the line for me.
“But at the minute, what I'm trying to learn and really embrace is going into different roles and different responsibilities whenever it's needed, and being that flexible person where I can bat at the top of the order if necessary, or I can bat in the middle, and I feel like I'm getting a lot more exposure of doing that… But I think, I don't really know, to be quite honest, where my role completely is. I guess those sorts of conversations will come a bit more down the line, once we find out selection for various squads, and if I am in that World Cup squad.”
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Since bursting onto the scene four years ago in the first year of The Hundred, Capsey has shown flashes of delivering on her early promise without fully nailing down a place. She made her England debut as a teenager, but was dropped from their T20I squad following the 2024 T20 World Cup, after making a top score of 19 in the tournament. Over six T20I innings last year, she only made one score of more than six.
She excelled with the ball in last winter's WBBL, claiming 13 wickets. However, in a bid to further her utility as an all-rounder, having played a limited role with the ball in T20Is so far amid England’s packed spin-attack, Capsey has turned back to her old specialism – as a wicketkeeper.
In England’s intra-squad match at Millfield School last week, Capsey was listed as her side’s designated keeper, amid a shortage of specialists in the squad. Amy Jones is not currently training with England following her wedding earlier this month, and Kira Chathli was released from the squad to play in Surrey’s One Day Cup fixture against Yorkshire. That left Capsey as keeper for one side, while fielding coach, Nick Wilton, took the gloves for the other.
“It's always been a thing that I've had in the background,” said Capsey. “Originally I first got in the England squad as a backup keeper, so it's always been around. But I first started having a few conversations a little bit more about it over the course of that Pretoria [winter training camp], being out there for that five-match series and exploring kind of what that looked like and whether it would be an option.
“It's been something I've really enjoyed since getting home and getting the keeping gloves back on. It was a bit foreign to begin with, but I'm having a lot of fun with Wilts [Nick Wilton], our keeping coach, around getting back into it. It's been good fun.”
England have been on the hunt for a reliable back-up option to Jones across formats over the past few years. Bess Heath played eight times for England under Jon Lewis, and was Jones’s back up for the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Ashes series. However, she hasn’t been included in a squad since Charlotte Edwards took over as England head coach last year. There was no named specialist keeper in England’s 50-over World Cup squad, but Rhianna Southby, as well as Chathli and Ellie Threlkeld, have all been involved in their winter training camps.
“What comes from it? I don't think anyone really knows just yet,” said Capsey. “It's pretty fresh, but it's definitely another side to my game and hopefully I can get it to a place where I can be trusted as a backup keeper if necessary.”
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