England players overlooked as Women’s Hundred captains are named

Only three English players will captain teams in the women’s Hundred this year. It is a marked contrast to the men’s competition, and a missed opportunity to expand England’s pool of potential leaders.

Nat Sciver-Brunt was the only viable option available to replace Heather Knight when Charlotte Edwards took over as England women’s coach after the 2024-25 Ashes. Edwards subsequently made it a priority to develop the leadership skills of her players and therefore increase the number of potential successors to Sciver-Brunt

Charlie Dean has since emerged as an impressive leader. She was appointed vice-captain last year and has led England nine times this summer – including in three T20 World Cup fixtures – while Sciver-Brunt was sidelined with a calf issue.

But Dean (London Spirit) is one of only three England players, along with Dani Gibson (Sunrisers Leeds) and Hollie Armitage (MI London), who will captain teams in the Hundred later this month, with overseas players due to lead the five other franchises.

Sciver-Brunt stepped down as Rockets captain last year and the side will be led by Ash Gardner again in 2026. Gardner is one of four Australian captains in the women’s Hundred, along with Meg Lanning (Manchester Super Giants), Ellyse Perry (Birmingham Phoenix) and Sophie Molineux (Southern Brave), while New Zealand’s Sophie Devine will lead Welsh Fire.

Knight, 35, will not play in the Hundred at all this year, instead taking up a general manager role with London Spirit’s women.

Gibson, a record-breaking £190,000 signing in March’s auction, gained some captaincy experience during England’s intra-squad series in South Africa in March. But other England regulars such as Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp have been overlooked by their franchises.

The trend makes the Hundred an outlier among the three major women’s franchises leagues: seven out of eight WBBL teams were captained by Australian players last year, while three of the five WPL franchises were led by Indians.

It is also a clear contrast to the men’s Hundred, where South Africa’s Aiden Markram (Manchester Super Giants) is set to be the only overseas player to captain a side. The Super Giants are the only franchise yet to announce their men’s captain for 2026, with the other seven franchises set to be led by England players.

Three of them — Jacob Bethell (Birmingham Phoenix), Sam Curran (MI London) and Phil Salt (Welsh Fire) — are potential candidates for England’s T20I captaincy in the event that Harry Brook steps down from the role in the near future, which could be a knock-on effect if he replaces Ben Stokes as Test captain.

Brook will not captain Sunrisers Leeds this season after talks with the franchise’s management, as he looks to manage his workload, with Zak Crawley due to lead the team instead. The other three confirmed captains are 30-something former England players in Liam Livingstone (London Spirit), Sam Billings (Trent Rockets) and Chris Jordan (Southern Brave).

Both MI London and Sunrisers Leeds are braced for a chaotic build-up to the first men’s game of the season on July 21. The fixture comes three days after T20 Blast Finals Day and the final of Major League Cricket in the USA and two days after an England-India ODI at Lord’s, meaning some players are unlikely to train before their first games for their new franchises.

Several women’s players will also face a tight turnaround, with a three-day gap between women’s T20 Blast Finals Day at The Oval on July 17 and the opening women’s match between the same two franchises.

The Hundred – 2026 captains

Birmingham Phoenix: Jacob Bethell, Ellyse Perry
London Spirit: Liam Livingstone, Charlie Dean
Manchester Super Giants: Aiden Markram (tbc), Meg Lanning
MI London: Sam Curran, Hollie Armitage
Southern Brave: Chris Jordan, Sophie Molineux
Sunrisers Leeds: Zak Crawley, Dani Gibson
Trent Rockets: Sam Billings, Ash Gardner
Welsh Fire: Phil Salt, Sophie Devine

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