2025 New Zealand A Women's Tour Of England Preview
The New Zealand A women's cricket squad was announced for their tour of England starting in a few weeks with three one-dayers and three T20s locked in. This follows on from a series between NZ-A and England A early in 2024 in which England won the three T20s before the kiwis won the one-day series 2-1.
NZ-A Squad
Emma Black, Anna Browning, Flora Devonshire, Izzy Gaze, Amie Hucker, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis, Bella James, Emma McLeod, Nensi Patel, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Izzy Sharp, Jess Watkin
Prior to that series, NZ-A had only dabbled in a few games and apparently their last proper series before that was a 2002 tour of Australia when they played 'Australia Youth'. NZ-A played one game against England (2008), then there was a game against a proper New Zealand team and Sri Lanka in 2015.
NZ Cricket has invested in far more development opportunities over the last few years. With a regular flow of Under 19 cricket and the North vs South series, as well as cultural tournaments each summer, there are plenty of fixtures plugged in during the domestic cricket season. Add in NZ-A cricket and there is a clear pipeline fine-tuning the emerging talent towards White Ferns.
The NZ-A squad features a bunch of White Ferns who are regulars in recent squads and this doesn't leave much space for players who featured in the previous NZ-A excursion. Caitlin Blakely, Saachi Shahri, Claudia Green, Prue Catton and Jess Simmons played in the 2024 series vs England A and they aren't in this squad despite having potential to add to White Ferns depth.
Kate Anderson and Mikaela Greig also played for NZ-A around their White Ferns call ups but were quickly shuffled out of that mix, same story for Leigh Kasperek. Hayley Jensen also played in that series and has since joined Greig in retirement. Most of the best batters and bowlers from the 2024 series are not in this squad, yet it still feels like a delightful snapshot of Aotearoa's emerging depth in women's cricket.
Here are the best performers from the 2024 NZ-A mahi that are still in the current squad...
One-Dayers
Polly Inglis: 103 runs @ 34.3avg/79sr
Nensi Patel: 48 runs @ 16avg/137sr | 4w @ 29avg/5rpo
Molly Penfold: 4w @ 37.2avg/5.8rpo
Emma Black: 3w @ 45avg/5.4rpo
T20s
Georgia Plimmer: 46 runs @ 23avg/98sr
Molly Penfold: 4w @ 17.2avg/6.1rpo
In the settled White Ferns tier are Plimmer, Penfold, Hannah Rowe and Izzy Gaze. All three have been in the White Ferns group for a few years and they will all benefit from being in the NZ-A tour. Plimmer, Penfold and Gaze are still youngsters who need to maintain reps against high quality opposite, while Rowe is a funky case because she is the most experienced player in this squad.
Rowe has dropped out of the 1st 11 mix across both formats and more competition for White Ferns roles will challenge her to push for future selection. As a genuine all-rounder who is always among the best batters and bowlers for Central Districts, Rowe has a chance to show her leadership as well as her cricketing skill.
Jess Watkin hasn't played for White Ferns since 2018 and joins Rowe as a senior player in this squad. Despite not being in the White Ferns mix over the past five years and the 2024 NZ-A activities, Watkin has played a bunch of cricket for the NZ 11 and in the North vs South series as well as her mahi for Northern Districts.
Regular selections in the tier between domestic cricket and White Ferns, especially when others have been shuffled out of this fringe tier, suggests that Watkin is still a player of interest for White Ferns. She is a spin bowling all-rounder who has immense natural ability, which is most evident in Watkin being one of the most powerful batters in Aotearoa.
Watkin smashes cricket balls and while she only batted in eight T20Is, her T20I strike-rate of 157.33 (118 runs) is still the highest for all White Ferns who have scored more than 5 runs in T20Is. Bella James has only played on T20I but it was against Australia and is next best on 155.55sr.
Along with James there are Polly Inglis, Bree Illing, Emma McLeod, Izzy Sharp and Flora Devonshire from the recent wave of new White Ferns. These players all flashed their talent last summer and while the amount of runs is important in demanding selection, the batters in this group score runs quickly and have a wide range of attacking shots.
James, McLeod and Sharp are likely to bat in the top-five. This squad has two wicket-keepers in Gaze and Inglis, which could be a factor for White Ferns moving forward as both wicket-keepers are among the most attacking batters in Aotearoa. Inglis is the better wicket-keeper and should roll forward as the leader in that role, but Gaze has grown into a powerful batter with a similar 'all around the park' style to Inglis.
CD's Devonshire is a lefty batter and lefty spinner, both of which are rare in the Aotearoa circuit. She has also shown a wide range of powerful strokes in domestic cricket and there could be a funky battle on the horizon as her lefty spin may challenge Fran Jonas soon. Devonshire is a far better batter than Jonas and if she can do a job as one of the main spinners, this will build out more competitive depth.
Watkin and Devonshire are joined by Nensi Patel and Anna Browning as spinners who are really good batters as well. Patel has been in this fringe White Ferns zone for a few years now without making a compelling case for a promotion, while Browning had an instant impact moving from Auckland too Otago.
Browning is ranked behind the other three heading into this tour of England but she is one of the best young cricketers in the White Ferns pipeline. Like the other three, Browning can bat higher in the order as she develops but she has mainly batted in the middle to lower order for Otago and generally operated as the second spinner behind Eden Carson in HBJ Shield.
There are three Auckland seamers in the squad with Penfold joined by Illing and Amie Hucker. Illing and Hucker have the same athletic profile that saw Penfold earn a swift White Ferns promotion but they have battled away in domestic cricket for longer developing their craft.
Illing has the lefty seam style that could make her an undercover 1st 11 option for White Ferns in the near future, while Hucker is a skillful seamer capable of hostilities and variations. Hucker sits behind her Auckland homies as well as Otago's Emma Black who was part of the White Ferns squad last summer but she didn't make her debut.
Black has been the best seamer outside of White Ferns over the past five years and she has helped Otago Sparks set up an HBJ Shield dynasty. Black has a different style to the other three seamers and even Rowe because of her in-swing to righties, which is a common skillset in women's cricket.
Here is a 1st 11 that can flow across both formats...
Bella James, Georgia Plimmer, Emma McLeod, Jess Watkin, Nensi Patel, Izzy Gaze, Polly Inglis (wk), Hannah Rowe, Flora Devonshire, Molly Penfold, Bree Illing
Sharp, Browning, Black and Hucker round out the rest of the squad. The men's NZ-A tour of Bangladesh had lots of rotations for team selections as one would expect for a development exercise and everyone in this women's squad is likely to get game time.
Expectations should be low to start with. England are still monsters of women's cricket and their resource advantage has seen them dominate all nations aside from Australia. This flows down through their development pipeline and despite the 2024 NZ-A team winning the one-day portion of that tour, England A finished the entire tour with a 4-2 record.
This offers a fabulous checkpoint to assess the future of White Ferns. A second tier White Ferns team featuring many of the players in this NZ-A squad won games against Sri Lanka last summer and provided a fresh, vibrant experience of watching White Ferns. This is the best example of expanded White Ferns depth, with the pure talent in this squad and their experience across all levels giving reasons to be optimistic about their performances in England.
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