\tESSEX<\/p>\n
Captain: Grace Scrivens<\/p>\n
Overseas players: None<\/p>\n
2025 finish: 7th<\/p>\n
2025\u00a0leading run-scorer: Lauren Winfield-Hill (334)<\/p>\n
2025\u00a0leading wicket-taker: Esmae MacGregor (21)<\/p>\n
Key winter moves: Batter Liberty Heap, signed from Lancashire, is yet to feature for Essex \u2013 and the bigger issue as arguably who they\u2019ve lost, rather than gained, since the 2025 Blast campaign. Lauren Winfield-Hill, back at Yorkshire after last season\u2019s loan spell, was Essex\u2019s leading run-scorer with Australian all-rounder Maddie Penna, now lining up for Lancashire, a close second.<\/p>\n
The big question: It\u2019s not only how Essex replace Winfield-Hill and Penna, but how they go about putting runs on the board collectively. The team only posted two totals above 160 last year, one in a dead rubber against Durham, and the likes of Cordelia Griffith, Grace Scrivens and recent England ODI cap Jodi Grewcock need to find ways of improving that.<\/p>\n
Wildcard watch: Flo Miller has begun the 50-over tournament in good form, hitting unbeaten half-centuries against Somerset and Surrey and her strike rate of almost 96 is the best among Essex\u2019s recognised batters. The 22-year-old could really come into her own as a T20 finisher \u2013 provided the top order give her a solid foundations to work with.<\/p>\n
Final thought:\u00a0Essex may miss Abtaha Maqsood\u2019s wicket-taking skills in the post-powerplay overs while the leg-spinner is on World Cup duty with Scotland, but they possess a good stock of seamers who can do some damage. Esmae MacGregor\u2019s return of 21 wickets was the second-best in last year\u2019s Blast while Eva Gray, Sophie Munro and Kate Coppack should all help to make Essex more competitive, as long as they have something substantial to bowl at.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESSEX Captain: Grace Scrivens Overseas players: None 2025 finish: 7th 2025\u00a0leading run-scorer: Lauren Winfield-Hill (334) 2025\u00a0leading wicket-taker: Esmae…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-781413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}