England seamer Lauren Bell fell in love with Test cricket when she made her debut towards South Africa final summer season and hopes this week’s Ashes opener towards Australia can seize the temper of the nation.
Bell made worldwide debuts in all three codecs in 2022 however her maiden red-ball look at Taunton stood out as an expertise she is going to always remember.
The 22-year-old’s first outing ended in a rain-affected draw, with England pushing for victory on the fourth and last day, however Bell’s first style of the long-form recreation left her anticipating extra.
Thursday’s conflict towards the world-beating Australians is ready to be larger in each sense, with each boards breaking with conference to schedule a fifth day and over 14,500 tickets bought at Trent Bridge – a venue with main Ashes custom. And Bell can hardly wait.
“When I made my debut last year it was memorable for so many reasons but the thing that really stood out was just how special Test match cricket felt,” she advised the PA information company.
“I don’t think I had ever fully appreciated it before, but I could see just how special it was to be part of and felt so lucky to be part of it.
“From the outside, I never realised quite how much fun it could be, how much went into it, how much planning. I feel I learned as much in the space of a week as I ever had done before.
“It’s exciting to be playing at Trent Bridge this year, a big Test ground with lots of history, and we need to appreciate women’s cricket heading in the right direction and show how far we’ve come.”
Bell realises Australia’s popularity because the dominant workforce of their technology has been nicely earned however, as a 6ft quick bowler, she isn’t given to timidity.
“Beating Australia is the main goal for us,” she stated.
“We know they have been ahead of us for the last few years, but we’ve worked really hard and there’s real confidence that we can really challenge them this year.
“We have to not be scared about failing. We can’t be worried about getting something wrong, thinking what might happen if we do.
“We’ll take the same mindset we have in T20 cricket – be confident, go to our strengths and look to take the positive options. We’ll be going out there with intent and aiming to get a result.”
Meanwhile, England all-rounders Alice Capsey and Alice Davidson-Richards have been launched from the Test squad. The pair will drop down to the England A facet as they put together to tackle Australia A in a T20 at Loughborough on Wednesday.
Capsey has turn out to be a central a part of England’s T20 and ODI groups and had been hoping to make her first Test look, whereas Davidson-Richards finds herself out of senior squad regardless of hitting a century towards South Africa in her solely Test innings.
Discussion about this post