Despite being fit enough to play for Lancashire, Sophie Ecclestone was left out of England's first squads under Charlotte Edwards on injury grounds. Ben Gardner examines what the decision to leave her out tells us about Edwards' leadership.
First, let’s get the terminology right. Dropped? No, that’s too strong, too final. Rested, then? That doesn’t work when she is going to be playing, just not for her country. After that, all we’re left with is ‘left out’, which conveys the intriguing ambiguity that accompanies the reality that when, in a week’s time in Canterbury, Nat Sciver-Brunt leads England out as full-time captain for the first time in Charlotte Edwards’ first game as head coach, Sophie Ecclestone won’t be in the side.
The facts: Ecclestone has been injured, missing the opening rounds of Lancashire’s One Day Cup campaign with a knee complaint. She is also now not injured, or at least less injured, hitting a half-century and taking 1-29 in 10 overs in victory over Warwickshire, on the same day as the first squads of the Edwards era, Ecclestone’s name conspicuous by its absence, were announced. “Physically not quite 100 per cent yet,” was how Edwards put it, when asked about Ecclestone’s exclusion, which might be true and still doesn’t fully explain her omission. There is more than a fortnight until the ODI leg of the West Indies tour starts, with two more Lancashire games between now and then in which she could prove her readiness. Ecclestone is the No.1 ranked bowler in both formats, and, alongside Sciver-Brunt, one of England’s two truly world-class players. It’s a big call presented as a small one.
England have announced their white-ball squads for the first series of the summer, to be played under a new head coach and captain.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) May 14, 2025
Sophie Ecclestone is "physically not quite at 100%" after injury, with Charlotte Edwards saying she "doesn't have enough cricket under her belt." pic.twitter.com/oYtAfQ24zY
This, you fancy, is just as Edwards likes it, allowing her to deliver a message to Ecclestone without yet proclaiming it to the world. The 26-year-old is an England titan, a Wisden Cricketer of the Year entering her theoretical prime having averaged single figures with the ball in the 2024 summer. She also, over the winter, became a symbol of England’s failings, an assumed target of Alex Hartley’s stinging fitness criticism, drawing even more ire after snubbing her former teammate for a pitchside interview during the Ashes. Now with Edwards at the helm the standards have been reasserted.
“What’s gone is gone, all we can do is influence what’s ahead of us,” Edwards told WCM, of her view on England’s recent humblings. But that can be taken another way, with any credit built up now worth less than it would have been. “I think my job is pretty easy in many ways, because it was such a brutal winter that the messaging now is really clear.” Perhaps there is a hope that Ecclestone will watch England on the TV at home in Manchester and realise what she’s missing out on. There is also a message to the rest of the team, as there is in the ODI dropping of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, that no player is too integral to be included by default.
There’s a temptation to say that Edwards has to find a way to make it work with Ecclestone, and no doubt she will do everything to make that happen. But this is also a chance to see how England could manage without her, in the event that injury or some other circumstance makes that necessary. Linsey Smith is among the most unfortunate cricketers to coincide with Ecclestone, confined to 16 T20Is across six and a half years despite being one of the domestic game’s standout performers in that time. This season, on the elevated platform of the One Day Cup, she has shone. No one has taken more wickets, and only Kate Cross has a better economy rate, among those to play more than once. Her Hampshire side are top of the table, beaten just once in seven. She deserves this chance, and should she grab it, Ecclestone will find herself with welcome competition when India arrive later in the summer.
If it’s a selection call that raises some questions over how exactly Ecclestone will fit into the new set-up, it also makes clear plenty about how those decisions will be made. England caps will be won, not granted, potential will be proven, not predicted, and performance, above all, will be rewarded.
After being appointed, Edwards spoke to WCM about the kind of change she wanted to effect. “We’ve got to sharpen up. The players that know me will know that I’ve got incredibly high standards, but equally I like having fun and they’ll have a lot of fun along the way, but we’ve got to work hard. Getting into this England team, you need to have absolutely earned the right to play.
“There’s four things: firstly, I want them to play more. Then it’s about performance, about performing in county cricket. And it’s about professionalism. And finally, it’s about changing people’s perception of the team.”
With her first significant act as England coach, Edwards has gone some way to putting all that into practice.
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