The cornerstones of the England women's cricket team

Some of the best bowlers in the world - specifically spinners - not only stick to their strengths but are also constantly upgrading their skillsets to stay relevant. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, the top-ranked bowler in ODIs and T20Is is no different. As someone who bowls a lot quicker than most spinners, she has been working on dropping her pace, England Women's head coach Jon Lewis has revealed.

Since her debut in 2016, Ecclestone has been on top of the wicket-takers list in T20Is and is the second-best spinner in the list in ODIs. She capped off an incredible year in T20Is as the top wicket-taker among players from Full Member teams in 2023.

She's also worked on bowling against left-handers, her much-improved average of 10.80 since 2022 as compared to 31.50 until 2021 in T20Is a testament to it. In the one-off Test against India, she got the opposition's two left-handers out in back-to-back overs, first having Smriti Mandhana caught at short leg with a short ball turning in from outside off and then getting a length ball to turn in sharply to make Yastika Bhatia chip it to short leg again.

"I know that over the last couple of years she's worked incredibly hard at bowling at left-handers," Lewis told ESPNcricinfo. "She can bowl faster than most girls and spin the ball at a higher pace than most girls. So that's one of the unique things she does better than other people.

"We've talked a lot to her about how to use her drop-down in pace rather than change up in pace. So those are probably the two things that we've worked on with Sophie. She's worked out some really good stuff about bowling to left-handers. She understands what makes her a good bowler to left-handers and I thought during the summer in the [Women's] Ashes series she bowled very well to Beth Mooney and also to Jess Jonassen."

While match figures of five wickets for 167 runs in a thumping 347-run defeat at the hands of India might suggest that the work is still in progress, her seven wickets at an average of 10.14 and economy rate of 6.26 made her the leading wicket-taker in the three-match T20I series preceding the Test and included 3 for 15 in her first match back after a three-month injury layoff.

Her accuracy, pace, subtle changes of trajectory and seam positions have troubled batters for years, but she keeps working.

"Sophie doesn't really enjoy training much - she loves playing games. She loves going out on the pitch and competing, so we have to try and find ways to stimulate her in training. She's worked for a long time with Gareth Breese, her spin bowling coach. They have a really strong relationship."

England have also been boosted by the presence of offspinner Charlie Dean, who has risen quickly through the ranks since her debut in 2022 to become one of their go-to wicket-taking options.

England captain Heather Knight also trusts her with the new ball. A consistent performer, Dean reaps the benefits of bowling classic offspin and also relies on drift and attacking lines. She was instrumental in bowling India out for 80 in the second T20I and provided a much-needed highlight for England during India's second innings of the Test in Mumbai, claiming four crucial wickets as the hosts built a mammoth lead, her accuracy on display as she had Deepti Sharma lbw and Sneh Rana bowled off consecutive deliveries.

Lewis praised Dean for her consistency, calling her the best "on the planet", and wants her to continue sticking to her strengths.

"We keep challenging her around the consistency of her best ball and bowling her best ball as often as possible," Lewis said. "Her best ball is the best. There's no offspinner that matches her on the planet. No one gets the drift she gets, no one gets the turn she gets. Her best ball is absolutely fantastic. She's a young spinner and there are lots of young spinners that don't bowl consistently.

"One thing I would say is during the T20 series, in terms of her output and her numbers and where she was landing the ball, it's gone through the roof in comparison to what she was through the summer and previously. We've got an excellent spin bowling coach in Gareth Breese, who works closely with those girls and helps them hone their skills. She's going to be an excellent bowler."

Among one of the most prolific performers for England for a long period has been Nat Sciver-Brunt, who played an important role with the bat in helping England seal the T20I series in India and was their only batter to pass 21 in the Test with a first-innings 59.

She's England's top run-getter in T20Is and ODIs this year, her best coming in the Ashes ODI series where she scored 271 runs at an average of 135.50 to go to No. 1 on the batting charts in the format.

In T20s this year, she has scored 1315 runs in 40 games at an average of 45.34, making the most runs for champions Mumbai Indians in the inaugural WPL. Lewis is "very fortunate" to have her in the England side, revealing how she plays a key role in the leadership group.

"When she was playing for Mumbai [Indians, in WPL] I was a bit jealous," said Lewis, who coaches UP Warriorz in the competition. "She's a great cricketer. She's incredibly calm and clear about what she wants to do and how she goes about her game.

"She's still learning and she still wants growth in her game. She wants to improve but the understanding she has of what she does when she plays well is the thing that stands out to me. And the other thing that she brings to our side is the way that she's able to communicate with all our players on the field. She's a real asset. She helps Heather [Knight, captain] a tremendous amount. She's incredibly calm and communicates clearly, especially with our young players. They work as a team.

"[Knight] and Nat and Amy Jones and Sophie Ecclestone work as a senior player group that takes responsibility to make sure the team is running well on the field and off the field. But Nat in particular is a good person who cares a lot about English cricket and playing cricket for England. She cares a lot about the team-mates around her and is a great support for all of them."

Team-mate Sophia Dunkley, however, has been going through a lean patch. She's made just one half-century across formats since the beginning of the year for England, averaging just 17.00 in 11 T20Is. She took a break for the latter part of the home international summer and found some late form in the WBBL in November, but she couldn't keep the momentum going in India. After scores of 1, 9 and 11 in the three T20Is respectively, she departed for 11 and 15 in the Test.

But one of Lewis's key takeaways from his time working in the England Men's Test set-up early in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era was removing fear of failure and backing players.

This was clear when England picked Dunkley to open alongside Tammy Beaumont in the Test after Emma Lamb, who opened in the Ashes Test in June, returned home from India with a back injury.

"She is frustrated that she's not getting the runs that she would like," Lewis said of Dunkley. "She's made some little technical changes to how she approaches her batting, which has given her access to different parts of the ground. If you saw her wagon wheel for a couple of games in the Big Bash, she accessed areas of the ground that she hasn't previously been able to do.

"The difficulty for these girls is they're trying to bring all these changes into their games whilst playing international cricket and being the player that everyone looks to in their franchise to score the runs. It's very different to men's cricket where other people are brought in to give [regular] players a break.

"I've got a real strong belief around Sophia's talent, she's got an amazing ability to strike a cricket ball. She's talismanic in the way she approaches the start of the game. It wasn't long ago that she had a pretty good World Cup and was really good against West Indies [in 2022].

"You mustn't get lost in the fact that she hasn't scored runs for a short period of time. If you compared her to some of our older players at the same age, I think she'd be well ahead of the curve. We're building a team for the future, and we're building a team that has a style of play we're confident can help us win games. Right now, Sophia is a big part of that."

England suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Sri Lanka at home which exposed their weaknesses against slower bowlers. With the T20 World Cup set to be played in Bangladesh next year and the ODI World Cup in 2025 in India to follow, Lewis organised a camp with select players in Mumbai following the series to help them improve their game against spin.

"[It was] just to expose them to different conditions, what shots they can play and how they need to adapt their game in different conditions," he said. "We've got two subcontinental World Cups coming up in the next two years. It's important to understand the conditions and how to play them smartly.

"What does aggression or high strike-rate look like in India compared to what it would look like in the UK? Or what would that look like in Bangladesh? We are a developing side and all we were try and develop some skills.

"The girls took lots of takeaways from it. Do I expect those things to become straight into their game after a five-day camp? Absolutely not. But do I expect them to think about how to improve, one hundred percent I do."