At 22, Alice Capsey is adding wicketkeeping to her skill set as she prepares for a packed 2027 including the Women’s Champions Trophy and a home Ashes, while beginning her WBBL chapter with Sydney Sixers.
In a suburban London net, Capsey faces a bowling machine at 80-plus mph, grinning as “absolute jaffas” crash into her off stump. “I think we managed 85 in the end, which is pretty cool,” she tells Cricinfo. “Going through the 70s, you expect yourself to hit it, and it was getting a bit frustrating. Then once you got to the 80s. I was like, ‘all right, we’ll give 85 a go.’” For a top-order batter, simulating men’s pace is preparation: “It was nice I could dictate where the ball was going to go.”
That appetite for challenges defined her 2026. Returning from Pretoria, head coach Charlotte Edwards asked whether Capsey would prepare as England’s back-up wicketkeeper. She had not kept since juniors, but with Amy Jones rested and Tammy Beaumont retired, the role made sense. In a warm-up against India, Capsey took a catch and stumped Richa Ghosh.
Later, in three ODIs versus Ireland, she claimed an excellent diving catch and two stumpings, one off a bouncer. “Come the Ireland series, Lottie rang me and was like: ‘Oh, we’re going to give you the gloves, how do you feel?’ I was a bit nervous but really excited,” Capsey says. “It was a really cool opportunity. When you’re enjoying something, you can fully commit.”
Alice Capsey sees the gloves as another route to cementing her place. “The biggest thing for me is that I want to be in the team and I want to be a mainstay as a top-order batter,” she explains. “Primarily, that’s my first skill. Then I want to be seen as the genuine all-rounder, whether it be I’m in the hot spots in the field, I’m bringing a bowling option, or I’m behind the stumps.”
Her batting this year underlined her value. In ODIs, she made 45 off 45 against New Zealand and 41 not out off 40 against Ireland at No. 4. In T20Is, she opened with 74 not out off 50 against New Zealand and smashed 82 off 43 at No. 4 versus India, before a brisk 40 off 25 against Scotland at the T20 World Cup set the platform for Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson. Overall, she has 566 ODI runs at a strike rate of 79.16 and an average of 21.76 in 30 innings, including one half-century in 39 matches with the bat. She has also picked up 17 wickets at an average of 24.47 and an economy of 4.85 in 19 innings, bowling off-spin in the format so far.
Capsey’s development has not been linear. She skipped regional cricket in 2024 and went unsold in this year’s WPL auction. Yet she frames that gap as productive: “That was a blessing in disguise, not getting picked for the WPL, because it meant I could dedicate almost three months to upping my skill development.” The payoff arrived when “everything I’d been working towards over the last two-and-a-half years came together. My template of how I wanted to go about T20 innings, that came through.”
Now she heads to Australia for the 12th WBBL with Sydney Sixers after stints with Melbourne Renegades and Stars. Across 46 WBBL matches, she has scored 784 runs at 118.42 and an average of 19.12 in 44 innings, including two half-centuries. With the ball, she has taken 43 wickets at 18.81 and an economy of 7.29 in 43 innings, highlighted by a four-for and a five-for. In the Hundred, she took five wickets for Birmingham Phoenix.
England’s 2026 offered encouragement despite the T20 World Cup final heartbreak. “How we went about it during the World Cup, being undefeated until the final, that’s a really good place to be,” Capsey notes. That itinerary begins with the Women’s Champions Trophy in India in February, before a home Ashes in 2027 opening with a one-off Test at Headingley. Edwards has promised greater red-ball focus.
For Capsey, the path is clear: refine all four skills, stay adaptable, and let performance decide her role. “There’s no doubt a few areas I’d love to work on, but it’s the start of the journey,” she says. “It’s just about unfolding each chapter as it comes.” With gloves, bat, and ball, Capsey is shaping into the multi-dimensional cricketer England will need in a defining 12 months.
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Source: femalecricket.com
