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'Dean a great captain, everyone feels calm under her' - Sophie Ecclestone
England has previously been here. Rather than any eerie sense of déjà vu though, they enter their T20 World Cup clash against Scotland without captain Nat Sciver-Brunt but with the know-how for winning matches without her.
Charlie Dean will stand in as captain when the sides meet at Headingley on Saturday night after Sciver-Brunt aggravated a calf muscle injury in the closing stages of their victory over Ireland at Southampton on Tuesday. Dean skippered England's 2-1 T20I series victories over India and New Zealand due to the same injury that kept her out of England's entire competitive schedule leading up to the tournament.
Sciver-Brunt has been ruled out of England's upcoming matches against Scotland and West Indies at this point, despite returning in fine form for the warm-up game against India and the first two T20 World Cup matches.
England's spin-bowling attack leader, Sophie Ecclestone, stated that Sciver-Brunt was upbeat in a statement made on the day of the Scotland match. Due to Dean's newly acquired experience in the position and their similar captaincy styles, the team had not experienced any disruption, even though she would be missed. "Not ideal that she's missing the next two games but Deano's going to take charge and it's obviously a really exciting place to be back in charge and captain at the World Cup," Ecclestone said.
"Charlie's obviously captained recently. It's been really cool to play with her for a bit and it's quite nice for her to not come in blindsided now. She has already served as England's captain for a few games, so I think it would be like bringing a duck back to water.
"It's pretty weird not to have Nat in a World Cup game, but Charlie's been amazing... she's been such a great captain, everyone feels so calm under Charlie and I feel like we've actually not even spoken about it recently. Charlie takes over as captain if Nat is unable to do so, and that is acceptable."
Scotland gave West Indies an almighty scare in their group clash at Headingley on Thursday night. Their bowlers stifled a star-studded West Indies batting line-up and were well backed up by some nerveless fielding while young opening batter Darcey Carter scored a half-century to keep her side in the contest right into the death overs.
They might have upset the game if it weren't for Stafanie Taylor's historic 19-ball 47 and two mini-collapses at either end of the Scotland innings caused by Hayley Matthews and then Aaliyah Alleyne. After battling a leg injury during a courageous innings, Carter may not be able to play against England, but Scotland has a number of other players who are a threat and of whom their opponents are well aware.