Sophie Ecclestone

Sophie Ecclestone has firmly established herself as one of England’s most impressive female cricketing talents. Since making her top-flight domestic debut for Lancashire in 2015 — when she was just 16 years old — she has gone on to play more than 100 test and one-day games for England. Her performance at the T20 World Cup in 2020 saw her become the number-one bowler in Women’s T20 International Cricket. She has also previously won the ICC Women’s Player of the Month Award. She remains an integral part of the England international team.

Ecclestone was born in Cheshire in 1999 and grew up playing football and cricket with her dad and brother in the village of Helsby, a few miles from Chester. She showed her cricket potential in school when she bowled out the entire team and bowled the headmaster for a golden duck. She joined the local Alvanley Cricket Club where she was the only girl in the junior team. In 2013, aged 14, she began playing country cricket for the Chesire women’s club.

Ecclestone’s natural bowling ability was such that she was fast-tracked through the England academy and made her debut in a T20I game against Pakistan in July 2016. After sitting out the 2017 World Cup because she was still doing her exams, Ecclestone became a fully-contracted member of the England squad in early 2019. She excelled in the 2020 T20 World Cup, becoming the youngest female cricketer to take 50 wickets in T20I cricket, doing so in just 34 games. Still in her early 20s, she’s going to be a fixture of women’s cricket for many years to come.