White-ball star Wyatt to debut as England name Test XI

Danni Wyatt will make her long-awaited Test debut at Trent Bridge on Thursday with uncapped quick Lauren Filer also been given the nod in England’s XI for the sole Test of the multi-format Ashes.

White-ball star Wyatt, who has played 102 ODIs and 143 T20Is across a 13-year international career, is slotted to come in at No.6 in an aggressive move aimed at adding firepower to the hosts' middle-order.

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England XI: Tammy Beaumont, Emma Lamb, Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt, Amy Jones (wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell

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The 32-year-old takes the spot many pundits had initially earmarked for 18-year-old prodigy Alice Capsey, who failed to fire in the three-day warm-up game against Australia A and who was released from the Test squad on Tuesday to join England A in Loughborough.

Wyatt did not feature in that game against Australia A; instead she joined England A for their own three-day game against the senior Australian side where she scored 37 off 46 deliveries in her only innings for the match.

Image Id: 60CC02825FA841478168F59C60294A00 Image Caption: Wyatt bats for England A against Australia in Leicester last weekend // ECB via Getty Images

Filer takes the final spot in the pace attack, edging out fellow speedster Issy Wong, while uncapped allrounder Dani Gibson is the other player to miss out from England’s squad of 13.

This will be the 22-year-old right-armer’s first game at international level.

Filer joins the likely new-ball pair of Kate Cross and Lauren Bell in England’s XI, while allrounder Natalie Sciver-Brunt provides another pace option.

Sophie Ecclestone is the sole specialist spinner in the England attack. which will be supported by part-timers including skipper Heather Knight.

Knight’s team have not beaten Australia in any format since the final match of the 2019 Ashes, and went winless in the 2022 Ashes.

But the fierce rivals have not played each another since the 2022 World Cup final in New Zealand, and England have undergone a period of change in the 18 months since that tournament, which includes a new coach in Jon Lewis and rebranding themselves as an aggressive, fearless outfit.

"(Jon Lewis) coming in and having a new philosophy of how we want to play cricket is really exciting and we're all trying to buy into that as best we can with a format that we don't play a lot of," English seamer Kate Cross told reporters in Nottingham on Tuesday.

"That's why we're all here – we want to win the Ashes back.

"We're not naive to the fact that we're going up against a really good team that have won a lot of trophies recently and a few of those games have been against us.

"I think that rivalry is always going to be there against Australia, but we've got a really exciting squad, we've got some new members in it that are bringing a lot of energy."

Australia are yet to settle on their Test XI, with coach Shelley Nitschke telling The Scoop podcast that a call would likely be made on Wednesday afternoon, or even as late as Thursday morning.

The tourists will hold a final training session at Trent Bridge this afternoon after heavy rain on Tuesday morning forced them into the indoor nets.

CommBank Ashes Tour of the UK 2023

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

England Test squad: Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver-Brunt (vc), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Kate Cross, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt

Test: June 22-26 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 11am local (8pm AEST)

First T20I: July 1 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, 6.35pm (3.35am July 2 AEST)

Second T20I: July 5 at The Oval, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 6 AEST)

Third T20I: July 8 at Lord’s, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 9 AEST)

First ODI: July 12 at The County Ground, Bristol, 1pm (10pm AEST)

Second ODI: July 16 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, 11am (7pm AEST)

Third ODI: July 18 at The County Ground, Taunton, 1pm (10pm AEST)