Linsey Smith’s outstanding start to her ODI career has loosened Sophie Ecclestone’s monopoly over the left-arm spinner role in England’s side for the first time in almost a decade. However, with a World Cup in India coming up, there is room for them in the same XI.
A combination of a knee injury and a new approach to player selection under Charlotte Edwards meant Ecclestone was left out of England’s first series of the summer against West Indies, and a space opened up for Smith to make her ODI debut almost seven years after her first international match. She delivered emphatically, becoming the seventh English woman to take a five-for on ODI debut and finishing with figures of 5-36.
Speaking after the game, she reflected on the prolonged period it’s taken her to break into the 50-over side: “I’ve been reminded quite a few times today how many days in between debuts I’ve had. It’s a dream that I didn’t want to give up on. I know for quite a while obviously I only played T20 and I knew deep down within me that I wanted to play every format and really push my case for that.”
Smith’s international career as a whole has undergone a revival over the last year. She played nine T20Is in 2018 and 2019, all but one of those away from home and six in Asia across two series when Ecclestone was again out injured. In her initial run in the T20I side, she took 13 wickets at an average of 14.46, but was dropped after one game at home in the 2019 summer with Ecclestone fit again.
In 2024, she was recalled for the first time in almost five years for the winter New Zealand series as Ecclestone’s WPL commitments saw her miss the first three games. After making way for Ecclestone once again mid-series, the prospect of a T20 World Cup in the UAE meant that England moved to accommodate a four-pronged spin-attack, making room for Ecclestone and Smith to play in the same XI alongside right-arm orthodox Charlie Dean, and leggie Sarah Glenn. She played in two matches during the tournament, in England’s group games against Bangladesh and South Africa which they won.
At that point, under Jon Lewis, England were focussed on including as much variety in their spin-attack as possible, with all three of Ecclestone, Glenn and Dean in the top 10 of the ICC T20I bowling rankings, and all offering variation in angle or method from each other. The expansion of that attack also paved the way for Smith to retain her space for the Ashes a few months later, playing one match in the series.
However, while England have looked to pack their T20I XI with spinners, that’s not been the case in the 50-over format. England have only twice fielded an XI which includes all of Glenn, Dean and Ecclestone – mostly opting for solely the latter two and using their spinning all-rounders in Alice Capsey and occasionally Heather Knight to bowl any extra overs required. With Ecclestone holding a stranglehold as a left-armer and Dean only second to Ecclestone by two on the leading wicket-taker list for England since her ODI debut in 2021, Smith – or anyone else for that matter – hasn’t been able to break in.
Smith being dropped is unlikely, and Ecclestone unthinkable
It took both an un-ignorable performance at domestic level and an injury to Ecclestone for Smith to come in this summer. Before she was called up to international duty, Smith was the joint leading wicket-taker in the One Day Cup, with 14 wickets from six games with an economy rate of 3.73.
While India await later in the summer as a likely tougher challenge than West Indies, and there’s no news on Ecclestone’s fitness for that series after she left the field during a T20 Blast fixture last week, it’s hard to fathom Smith will be dropped. But it’s also almost unthinkable that the World No.1 ODI bowler will not be in England’s squad which will head to the World Cup in India later this year. So, England must find a way to do what they’ve never previously been able to, field Ecclestone and Smith in the same ODI XI.
While, on paper, Ecclestone and Smith are similar bowlers, they are actually almost completely different. Ecclestone stands at six foot tall, creating an angle almost unique for a spinner in the women’s game. That angle means she gets considerable bounce, and combined with the sharp turn she puts on the ball, her attributes and skill have made her the force in the game she’s been for a decade.
Smith, on the other hand, is 5ft 2in and bowls with a skiddy trajectory without considerable turn. Batters find it difficult to generate the height needed to belt her over the boundary rope, which is reflected in the 60 percent of T20 dismissals she’s taken that have been caught. Using the T20 format as a sample size, given Smith’s ODI data-pool is currently too small and List A individual stats in the women’s domestic game are hard to come by, Ecclestone’s and Smith’s differing strengths are shown in sharper light.
There’s also that the World Cup will be played in India, with spinners expected to play a big role. While England have typically picked two frontline spinners in most of their ODI XIs over the last few years, it’s worth noting where those matches have been played. The last ODI England played in Asia was in 2019, when they played a series against Pakistan in Malaysia. They last played in India earlier that same year, which dovetailed with Smith’s first run in the T20I side.
Equally, England have the room in their ODI side to play more than two frontline spinners. With Amy Jones moving back up to the top of the order having brought initial success, room has been made in the middle order for both a specialist batter and a seam-bowling all-rounder in addition to Nat Sciver-Brunt, strengthening both batting and bowling ranks.
If Sciver-Brunt is able to resume bowling for the World Cup, and a seam-bowling all-rounder like Em Arlott or Alice Davidson-Richards continues in the side, England could feasibly play Dean, Ecclestone and Smith, as well as one of their specialist pacers in India. That would give them three pace options and three spin bowlers in their attack.
There were also signs against West Indies that England could look to use Capsey in an all-rounder role more in ODIs going forward. Dean didn’t play in the second ODI of the series, with Smith operating as the lone specialist spinner. Capsey got through 8.4 overs, her ninth cut short by taking the final wicket, and returned figures of 3-41. Having mostly been used sparingly with the ball previously, she’s bowled in the last four ODIs she’s played and taken seven wickets at an average of 15.42 across them. If Capsey can become close to a frontline option, England could afford to play both Smith and Ecclestone, with Capsey as the right-arm orthodox, and field another pacer in place of Dean.
Overall, Smith forcing her way back into the ODI side and performing once there is another tick next to Charlotte Edwards’ name from the early decisions of her tenure. And it’s opened more possibilities for a side which looked rigidly structured going into a huge tournament in just a few months time.
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