Rosa Simkin (@rosatalksball) – 26/07/24
Competiton – Women’s Hundred
Ground – Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Head Coach – Jon Lewis
Captain – Nat Sciver-Brunt
2023 Finish – 4th
Order of Content – The Draft & Construction of Squad, 2023 Season & What To Expect, The Squad, My Starting XI, Players To Watch, The Leadership, The Schedule & Where To Watch, Tickets.
The Draft & Construction of Squad
Trent Rockets had a mixed 2023 campaign, placing 4th and therefore failing to advance past the group stage. For Jon Lewis heading into the 2024 season, it was a case of strengthening specific areas of the squad rather then rebuilding from the ground up. In the retention stage of the squad formulation, sides have the option to retain up to eight of their 2023 squad. Somewhat surprisingly, they opted to use only six of those availble slots to retain their captain and number one all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt, Aussie spin option Alana King, opening bat Bryony Smith, 2024 T20 title winning captain with Blaze, Kirstie Gordon and up and coming pace options Grace Potts and Alexa Stonehouse.
After retention comes The Draft, with sides having to fill any remaining gaps in their top 13 salary bands. Due to their fourth placed finish in 2023, Rockets were given the fifth pick of the draft which they used to select Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner, who joins the squad to make her debut in the tournament. Their next pick brings England U19 World Cup and current Sunrisers captain Grace Scrivens to partner with Bryony Smith at the top of the order. The next pick brings another Aussie to complete their overseas trio, with Heather Graham entering the fold. Graham has spent a large portion of the English summer with Trent Bridge based regional side The Blaze, taking 24 wickets with her right-arm seam across formats and scoring 167 runs. Next comes another big pick, with left-arm seam option Katie George making the move from Manchester Originals. Finally, the domestic trio of Josie Groves, Kira Chathli, Cassidy McCarthy completes The Draft.
This leaves Rockets with two slots to fill in their lowest two salary bands, done a few months after the March draft in the Vitality Wildcard Draft, which allows domestic form to be rewarded. They opt to strengthen their batting with Aylish Cranstone from the South East Stars and add to their wicket-keeping options with Nat Wraith from Western Storm.
Rockets have had no injuries since the conclusion of the draft, with no changes to their squad.
2023 Season & What To Expect
Trent Rockets will be looking to improve on their 2023 performance as they missed out on an eliminator position, placing fourth with three wins from the seven games they played. This meant one worse then their 2023 standings, after they fell short to the Southern Brave in the 2022 eliminator, despite Nat Sciver-Brunt’s heroics. Bat was where they shined in their 2023 campaign, particularly at the top of the order with openers Bryony Smith and Lizelle Lee scoring 226 and 165 runs overall respectively, strengthened by Nat Sciver-Brunt in the middle order with 216 runs from the seven innings she played. The work with ball was more of a struggle, with a heavy reliance on local spin wizard Kirstie Gordon who took a third of all wickets with 10.
With coach and captain, the same in 2024 in Nat Sciver-Brunt and Jon Lewis the side has been bolstered elsewhere. Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner comes in, who took 23 wickets and scored 208 runs during last summers Ashes on English soil, as well as domestic talent opening bat Grace Scrivens and left-handed all-rounder Katie George. George comes in as a potential replacement for retired England great Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Scrivens adds stability at the top of the order with the current Sunrisers captain likely to open with power hitter Bryony Smith. They edition of new players has balanced out their squad and potential XIs and if they can translate the that paired with the strength and experience within the squad into their performances on the pitch there is nothing to stop their success. However, the loss of international greats Lizelle Lee and Katherine Sciver-Brunt could be costly from a leadership perspective for Sciver-Brunt and Jon Lewis.
The Squad
Ash Gardner (o), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Grace Scrivens, Alana King (o), Heather Graham (o), Bryony Smith, Katie George, Kirstie Gordon, Grace Potts, Alexa Stonehouse, Josie Groves, Kira Chathli, Cassidy McCarthy, Aylish Cranstone, Natasha Wraith.
My Starting XI
Bryony Smith
Grace Scrivens
Nat Sciver-Brunt (C)
Ash Gardner
Katie George
Heather Graham
Alana King
Nat Wraith (WK)
Alexa Stonehouse
Kirstie Gordon
Grace Potts
Bench – Josie Groves, Kira Chathli (WK), Casidy McCarthy & Aylish Cranstone
Players To Watch
Star Player – Nat Sciver Brunt
*see leadership section (she’s just so good she had to be included as both!)*
Young Talent – Grace Potts
22-year-old Grace Potts enters her second year with the Trent Rockets and her third in the tournament. The exciting right-handed pace bowler is one of the quickest around and is on England’s cards, with consistent participation in England A and developmental tours in recent years. She is yet to take a wicket in the tournament owing to battles with injury in recent years but will be looking to continue her domestic form as she has taken 22 wickets domestically this year for the Central Sparks. She also has developed in the batting department in recent years and is slowly moving up the order in domestic games and could provide a few additional runs at the tail end of the order.
The Leadership
Nat Sciver-Brunt (Captain)
I certainly don’t think I need to justify Nat Sciver-Brunt as the captain of this Rockets side, she quite frankly needs no introduction. She is so good I had to include her twice in this preview! She is widely regarded as the best all-rounder in the game owing to her consistent performances with bat and her pace bowling in International and global franchise cricket alike and her number one world ODI all-rounder ranking speaks volumes of that fact. In England’s 2023 Ashes campaign Sciver-Brunt scored the most of any batter with 404 runs including two ODI centuries in just as many games. Her experience will prove crucial as she enters her second-year captaining. She enters the tournament with a bank of 664 runs and 9 wickets so far in the format.
Jon Lewis (Coach)
The first thing which is rather crucial to point out when it comes to Rockets head coach Jon Lewis is it is likely not the Jon Lewis you are all thinking of, who is presumably England women’s head coach. This Jon Lewis is also a part of that environment as a batting coach and was up for the role of head coach, but was beaten to it by other Jon Lewis. Confusing right? The Jon Lewis I’m referring to here enters his third year coaching the side after replacing Salliann Briggs in 2022. His experience in the women’s game is evident through his success with the Rockets side, reaching the eliminator in 2023 and a top-half finish last season. With positive work in the draft to plug some rather prevalent gaps you could see this Rockets side having a competitive 2024 campaign, however I think they will struggle to compete with the talent of the Welsh Fire and Oval Invincibles squads. I am however as ever happy to be proven wrong.
The Schedule & Where to Watch
*Home games indicated in bold*
| Date | Opposition | Venue | Time (BST) | Coverage (UK) |
| Fri 26th July | Northern Superchargers | Headingley, Leeds | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
| Mon 29th July | Manchester Originals | Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
| Wed 31st July | Birmingham Phoenix | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
| Sat 3rd August | Welsh Fire | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 2:30 PM | Sky Sports |
| Wed 7th August | London Spirit | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
| Sat 10th August | Southern Brave | Utilita Bowl, Southampton | 11:00 AM | Sky Sports |
| Mon 12th August | Birmingham Phoenix | Edgbaston, Birmingham | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
| Wed 14th August | Oval Invincibles | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | 3:00 PM | Sky Sports |
Eliminator – Saturday 17th of August @ The Oval, 2.15pm – Sky Sports, BBC Two & BBC iPlayer
Final – Sunday 18th August @ Lord’s, 2.15pm – Sky Sports, BBC Two & BBC iPlayer
Tickets
https://www.thehundred.com/tickets?matches=group
Join in with the action! Tickets start at £5 for Juniors and £11 for Adults in the group stage. After all, every ball counts!
