Sophia, Katie and Lola named in England U19 preparation group

England Women U19s will tour Sri Lanka to take on the hosts and Australia in a Tri Series (March 2024-April 2024).

Both T20 and 50-over formats will be played across the tour, with more details including dates and locations to be announced in due course.

A preparation group, which includes Western Storm’s Sophia Smale, Katie Jones and Lola Harris, will commence a series of winter camps in Loughborough in January before a reduced tour squad is announced at a later date.

Meanwhile, Chris Guest (currently Regional Head Coach at The Blaze and Assistant Coach at Northern Superchargers) is named as Head Coach with Courtney Winfield-Hill, former Senior Regional Talent Manager at Northern Diamonds, Assistant Coach at Trent Rockets in the Hundred and most recently with Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League and Darren Franklin, Senior Regional Talent Manager for Central Sparks, as Assistant Coaches.

Within the Preparation Phase player group are a number of players that attended the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 World Cup in South Africa in January 2023 and who are still age–eligible. They are joined by some players who are U19 for the 2024 season only and some players who will also remain as U19 players for the second Women’s U19 World Cup in Malaysia in January 2025 and therefore will be in contention for that programme later in 2024.

South East Stars’ Jemima Spence was originally selected in the 20-player preparation phase player group but has had to withdraw due to injury. She has been replaced by Maddie Ward from the Northern Diamonds.

England Women Head of Performance Pathways Richard Bedbrook said: “We are delighted to announce the preparation phase player-group and our new coaching team in what will be an exciting start to 2024 for the England Women’s U19 programme.

“This coaching team provides a great opportunity to utilise learning and experiences from our first England Women U19 World Cup programme to date with both Chris and Darren having been involved in the leadership and delivery of that.

“Courtney is a great addition and brings a wealth of experience that we’re delighted can impact on a new England Women U19 environment to be created.

“The Tri Series in Sri Lanka will see the group gain valuable development experience of playing in the subcontinent against challenging opposition and we’re really interested to see what learning players and staff can make from the opportunity.”

England Women U19 preparation group

Meg Austin (Central Sparks)
Summer Carrington (Thunder)
Tilly Corteen-Coleman (South East Stars)
Jodi Grewcock (Sunrisers)
Josie Groves (The Blaze)
Lola Harris (Western Storm)
Trudy Johnson (Northern Diamonds)
Katie Jones (Western Storm)
Charlotte Lambert (South East Stars)
Ava Lee (Southern Vipers)
Abi Norgrove (Southern Vipers)
Charis Pavely (Central Sparks)
Davina Perrin (Central Sparks)
Sophia Smale (Western Storm)
Alexa Stonehouse (South East Stars)
Charlotte Stubbs (South East Stars)
Amu Surenkumar (Sunrisers)
Mary Taylor (Southern Vipers)
Erin Thomas (Northern Diamonds)
Maddie Ward (Northern Diamonds)