England pin hopes on Sophia Dunkley's batting promotion as exciting Ashes finish looms

With Emma Lamb struggling with her form at the moment, the England management has decided to promote Sophia Dunkley up the order in the first ODI of the series against Australia. Notably, the 24-year-old was brilliant in the T20I series against the Alyssa Healy-led side, and thus, the team management believes that the cricketer can disrupt Australia’s bowling in the initial overs and hence, Dunkley will be seen opening with Tammy Beaumont, who scored a sensational double-century in the one-off Test at Trent Bridge.

Meanwhile, skipper Heather Knight has confirmed the new development and stated that she will be batting at number three in place of Dunkley. She also lauded the youngster saying that Dunkley has been brilliant for England in the last couple of years, and thus, she expects her to shine in the new role as well.

“Sophia's going to open the batting. She moved up to three last year, was brilliant, really successful, made an impact, so she's going to move up to open and do exactly how she has done in the ODI team at three. We want to maximise the powerplay, and that was a change we made with Sophia moving up to three last year to try and take on the powerplay a little bit more. But with Sophia, she's a proper batter as well. She's not just a little pinch-hitter at the top,” Sophia was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Notably, Dunkley scored a brilliant half-century in the first T20I against Australia and shared an important 57-run stand with Danni Wyatt in the second. On the other hand, even though she scored only nine runs in the third T20I, Knight believes that her 39-run partnership with Wyatt actually helped them win at Lord’s.

“Their partnership at Lord's was outstanding. I thought that probably won us the game, the way they started, Danni in particular taking on the game, and Sophia plays that role so brilliantly for us. Naturally she scores quite quickly so she can score big runs as well. It's for her to play her natural game and put the bad balls away and then also try and put pressure back on the bowler, maybe not quite at the tempo she does in T20 but that's the logic behind it,” Knight said.