Sarah Glenn steps up as England look to shed reliance on big names

It seems whenever the England men's football team play a big match, Sarah Glenn brings her A game.

In England Women's opening T20I against New Zealand, the footballers were about half an hour into their Euro 2024 clash with Switzerland - which England won on penalties to reach the semi-final - when Glenn walked off the field at Southampton with a crucial 3 for 16 to her name as the hosts went 1-0 up in the five-match series.

On Saturday, some 24 hours before England face Spain in the Euro final, she sat in the post-match press conference at The Oval with 4 for 19 from yet another victory over New Zealand, who go into Wednesday's fixture at Lord's with one last chance to return home with a solitary win from eight matches.

Glenn is the joint-leading wicket-taker in the T20I leg of New Zealand's visit with fellow England spinner Sophie Ecclestone. Glenn has eight wickets at a better average of 6.87, and her economy rate of 4.34 is the best across both teams. Charlie Dean, the other prong to England's enviable spin trio, was rested on Saturday as part of her side's rotation policy throughout this series, but Glenn and Ecclestone - six of New Zealand's eight wickets fell between them - had it covered.

Ecclestone and Glenn are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the ICC's T20I bowling rankings and Dean is at No. 8. Ecclestone has held the top spot since February 2020 but England now find themselves in a position where they have enough players in form with bat and ball to experiment ahead of the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October.

That is a testament to the depth they have been building, which appears to be peaking at the right time. It was only in May, after two home white-ball series against Pakistan that ended in victory for England but lacked the ruthlessness they have shown against New Zealand, that England head coach Jon Lewis suggested his squad faced a challenge keeping up with the standards of big stars Ecclestone and Nat Sciver-Brunt.

"Everyone's performing at some point," Glenn said. "I feel like we're not kind of relying on big names anymore. Everyone has taken their turn to step up and I think that's so exciting, especially the young ones and every single player. You could pick any XI at the moment, from not just this squad but also back into the regional teams. Everyone's performing really, really well and pushing for their place. It's really exciting."

New Zealand's reliance on big names - Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr - has left them looking toothless on this tour. That was emphasised by the fact that the closest they have got to beating England was when Devine reached a first half-century for any of those three in the T20Is with 58 in the third game in Canterbury. There, England won by six wickets with just four balls remaining after Alice Capsey's 67 not out.

In both of Glenn's pivotal performances, she has claimed wickets in clusters. She took three in an over in Southampton and had two double-wicket overs on Saturday. She bowled Georgia Plimmer with a straight delivery that crashed into middle stump, then sent down a half-tracker that Amelia Kerr slapped straight to Capsey at midwicket, a dismissal Glenn admitted she would take but wasn't keen to see on replay.

Glenn also bowled Jess Kerr and had Maddy Green caught at mid-on, the latter saying: "They're a world-class spin attack and Sarah has been able to come in and change the game. Unfortunately, we haven't played it very well. She's bowling well and we need to be at our best to compete with the likes of Sarah Glenn and their spin attack. We just weren't at that today unfortunately and that sort of swung the momentum of our innings pretty crucially."

Against the backdrop of a football game that will grip the country on Sunday night, Glenn was asked how she prepares for big occasions.

"I think it's just that balance of switching on and switching off," she said. "We set meetings to chat through fields or certain batters on their team, for example, so we put those in place just to have those chats and clear our heads before the game. And then in between that, switch off. We're in the changeroom, got the tunes on, chatting a lot of rubbish, to be honest. It's just that real balance of being really clear on what we want to do before and giving ourselves the best chance to win, but also enjoying it and playing with a smile on our face."

For the record, Ecclestone is the dressing room DJ, and Glenn believes "it absolutely is" when asked, "Is it coming home?" That makes sense, given that the team bus has had "It's coming home" written in lights above the windscreen, where the destination would normally show. Even though this series hasn't produced a big-game occasion - despite a healthy crowd at The Oval playing their part - soon enough England will be preparing for just that, and hoping the destination is the same.