Lauren Winfield-Hill joins Essex on loan from Yorkshire for Blast

Lauren Winfield-Hill has joined Essex on loan from Yorkshire for the upcoming Women's Vitality Blast.

Winfield-Hill is captain of Yorkshire, currently competing in Tier 2 of the new women's domestic competitions, and a move to Essex offers the chance to play in the top tier for the T20 competition starting on May 29. Essex will play their first match the following day, away to Hampshire.

Winfield-Hill was part of the Northern Diamonds team which was disbanded under the move to county-based teams from this season onwards, and has been supportive of her former team-mates who had decided to move, many to Durham, to play in Tier 1 immediately.

Speaking before her loan move to Essex, Winfield-Hill told ESPNcricinfo that with Yorkshire set to move into the top flight from next season, this year presented unique challenges for the club, such as balancing player development with competing under the heavy expectations of a fully professional side.

"It does look a bit different for senior players in terms of the Tier 2 cricket," Winfield-Hill told ESPNcricinfo. "I always use the analogy of revving a car. It's not just like, 'oh, you're just cruisy, see what happens, it's Tier 2'. It's actually getting into that sweet spot of still really competing. That's the key thing for a lot of the senior players in the group, is how we get our beans going and compete and almost play games within games sometimes."

As Essex announced her loan signing on Wednesday, Winfield-Hill said the deal "makes perfect sense".

"I want to keep testing myself by playing at the highest level possible, and this move means that I can do that in what is set to be a groundbreaking year for women's cricket in England," she said. "I really feel like I can bring something to the group here at Essex, and I'm excited to play in a new environment at Chelmsford, too."

Winfield-Hill has represented her country 104 times across all three formats, most recently for the T20 leg of England's winter tour of West Indies in late 2022. She has also played in franchise leagues around the world, including the Hundred, WBBL and CPL.

An ODI World Cup winner in 2017, she has 19 half-centuries in T20 cricket, with a top score of 98 off 56 balls for Northern Diamonds against Western Storm in the 2023 Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Winfield-Hill is also a capable wicketkeeper, having assumed the role throughout her four seasons in The Hundred to date, and from that position has claimed 38 stumpings, as well as 24 of her 91 total catches in the format.

Charlotte Edwards, the new England Women's head coach, was at Hove on Saturday to watch Yorkshire bounce back from a 114-run, first-round loss against Worcestershire with a nine-wicket thrashing of Sussex in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup. Winfield-Hill scored 8 in the first game and an unbeaten 47 off 43 balls in the second.

Edwards made it clear upon taking the England post that domestic cricket represented on opportunity for players to press their claims for international selection.

Asked if she still saw a place for herself in that landscape, Winfield-Hill told ESPNcricinfo: "I'm obviously not retired and I've got a lot of cricket ahead of me. The last couple of years I've probably played better than I did when I was wearing an England shirt, which is ironic.

"I still think my best years are ahead of me, I just don't necessarily realistically think that's in an England shirt. My desire to play for England will never waver, but I think at times you feel like you've got more hope than other times.

"If that ship has sailed, that ship has sailed. If a couple of players went down and you're sort of looking around and you're performing well, then you're not going to say no to playing for England ever. At the minute it's probably not a realistic way in for me, and that's fine, but I'm certainly not retiring, I'm not pulling curtains on my England career."

Andy Tennant, Team Director of Essex Women, was delighted to secure a player of Winfield-Hill's experince and proven run-scoring ability.

"When the chance to sign her became available, it was one that we worked really hard to complete, because we knew how much of a positive influence she is capable of bringing as a role model for our young and developing player group," he said. "The opportunity to add Lauren's experience and game sense is every bit as valuable as seeing her out in the middle scoring runs for Essex."