Women’s Ashes: What have England learned from their tour of South Africa?
In the bowling department, Lauren Filer is the most exciting asset England have.
She didn’t take a particularly high number of wickets against South Africa (eight in total across the three formats), but Filer proved that fast bowling isn’t just defined by numbers.
She often scares batsmen with her fiery short ball, who duck, swing or back away from their stumps when the ball launches fuller.
The dilemma for England is whether they can field Filler and Lauren Bell in the same white-ball team. While Bell took eight wickets in his man-of-the-match performance in Tests, in the shorter format the two can be inconsistent, leading to a lack of control.
They did not play together often, taking only three wickets in two ODIs, with Farrar’s economy rate of 5.7 and Bell’s economy rate of 6.4.
But in the three T20 games they have played, they have been more efficient, taking nine wickets, with Farrar averaging 36 and Bell averaging 10.6.
Kate Cross has had a brilliant year in ODIs, taking 19 wickets at an average of 18 and best figures of 6-30 if she recovers from the back spasm that shortened the tour of South Africa Recover and probably come straight back.
Former England batsman Lydia Greenaway told the BBC Test Match Special podcast: “The issue with Bale or Filer might come down to conditions. If it’s a green seamer then they might have to put down the spinners so they can Use them and Cross at the same time.”
“You could see in the first ODI (against South Africa) when they played both Bell and Farrar, they looked really vulnerable.
“If one of them is having a bad day, I don’t think you can be too reliant on the other person, certainly not in the same way that Kate Cross is, so they always have to play her.
“For me now, as long as she’s fit, they have to go with Filler because she can be the biggest difference-maker, especially in a place like Australia.”
