Watch Women's Big Bash League live on Sky Sports from Thursday - Alice Capsey (Melbourne Stars), Sophie Ecclestone (Sydney Sixers), Tammy Beaumont (Sydney Thunder) and Danni Wyatt (Brisbane Heat) among the six English players involved in this year's edition
Wednesday 12 October 2022 13:26, UK
Alice Capsey's cricketing ascent will continue with a maiden stint in the Women's Big Bash League - a tournament you can watch live on Sky Sports.
The England international burst onto the scene in The Hundred in 2021, scoring a half-century on her Lord's debut at the age of 16 and then helping Oval Invincibles win the title later that summer.
Capsey, now 18, built on that in 2022, making her England debut in the T20 and 50-over formats, racking up 13 appearances for her country in total, hitting a first international fifty during the Commonwealth Games, and playing a key role as Invincibles retained the Hundred trophy.
"I have been watching women's games for five to seven years and she is the bright star that we have seen," Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain said of Capsey after she scored 25 from 17 balls and hit the only six of the match as Invincibles beat Southern Brave in this year's Hundred final at Lord's.
"She is so switched on, so confident, and has that lack of fear of failure. I think she is a superstar in the making, she really is."
This 'superstar in the making' will be a Melbourne Star over the next month or so having signed for that franchise in the WBBL. Capsey will be hoping to propel her team to a maiden title, with Stars losing in the final in 2020/21 and failing to make the play-offs in each of the other six seasons.
The youngster will be joined in the Women's Big Bash League by three more England T20 international regulars in left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, opening batter Danni Wyatt and wicketkeeper Amy Jones.
Ecclestone, the top-ranked ODI and T20I bowler in the world, has been signed by a Sydney Sixers side looking to make the play-offs for the first time since 2018/19. Wyatt is at Brisbane Heat, Jones at Sydney Thunder.
The tournament will also provide Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield-Hill with an opportunity to push for England T20 recalls ahead of the World Cup in South Africa in February.
Beaumont - the ICC's Women's T20I cricketer of the year for 2021 - was dropped from England's T20 team this summer as the side opted for a top three of Wyatt, Sophia Dunkley and Capsey.
England head coach Lisa Keightley said at the time she wanted "dynamic" players and Beaumont will hope to display that trait in the WBBL by raising her career strike-rate in that competition from its current 94.23.
Winfield-Hill, meanwhile, has not played for England in a T20 international since February 2020 but showed her short-form credentials during Invincibles' title-winning campaign in The Hundred, scoring 219 runs in seven innings at a healthy strike-rate of 136.02.
Effervescent fast bowler Issy Wong - who made her Test, ODI and T20I debuts this summer - was also due to play in the Big Bash, for Hobart Hurricanes, but has been withdrawn by the ECB to manage a back issue.
There will be an English presence among the coaches, with former captain Charlotte Edwards helming Sixers, Trevor Griffin leading Thunder and ex-Surrey wicketkeeper Jonathan Batty working with Capsey at Stars.
Watch the Women's Big Bash League live on Sky Sports from Thursday. The opening game sees Brisbane Heat take on Sydney Sixers, with coverage beginning at 9.35am on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event ahead of a 9.40am start.
