Emma Lamb

A right-hand opening batter and occasional medium pacer who later switched to offspin, Emma Lamb progressed through Lancashire's age-group system and made her senior debut in the County Championship in 2012. The following year, she scored a maiden century in the competition.

Aged just 16, she followed older brother Danny into Lancashire's men's academy programme in 2014, only the second women to do so. England Academy selection followed, and she turned heads with her performances in the 2016 tri-series with Sri Lanka A and Australia's Shooting Stars.

Lamb received her first England call-up as a replacement for Maia Bouchier and Charlie Dean, who were both ruled out of the first T20I against New Zealand due to Covid-19 precautions in September 2021. The previous July, she had scored 111 off 62 balls as an opener and taken 3 for 16 for Thunder in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. Against White Ferns, she came in at No. 6 but didn't face a ball.

A second-ball duck followed in her first ODI, during the 2022 Ashes - her only match of the tour - but it was during the English summer a few months later that she made a real impression. She scored 38 opening in her only innings of the Test against South Africa, then racked up 102, 67 and 65 in the three ODIs which followed.

Lamb made just five appearances for England across 2023-24 - including the home Ashes Test - but forced her way back into the ODI squad through the sheer weight of runs in the 2025 domestic one-day competition. She scored half-centuries against West Indies and India batting at No. 3 in the absence of the injured Heather Knight.