England Women's Ashes Campagin to begin at Taunton

The Country Ground, Taunton, is pleased to announce they will play host to the opening fixture of the 2015 Women’s Ashes Series.

The series will get underway in Somerset on July 21^st 2015, where England Women will take on an old enemy over the course of three Royal London One-Day Internationals, three NatWest Twenty20 Internationals and one Kia Women’s Test Match

Somerset and England women’s opening bowler, Anya Shrubsole, said: “I cannot wait to get our 2015 Women’s Ashes campaign underway in front of a home crowd at the County Ground in Taunton next summer.  I have grown up playing cricket for Somerset and know first-hand how passionate the County Members are and how much the local public love watching cricket at the County Ground, so it is brilliant news that we will get to take on Australia there in the first Royal London ODI on July 21st.”

Somerset Chief Executive Guy Lavender is delighted to see the England Women returning to The County Ground: “To have the opening Women’s Ashes fixture here is fantastic news and a great honour for the Club and the County as a whole.”

As Mr Lavender explains, Somerset has strong links to the Women’s game: “In 2009 the County Ground was designated The Home of Women’s Cricket to coincide with the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 tournament, which saw Somerset stage all 12 group match fixtures in the competition.  Since then the women’s game has gathered enormous support and momentum and from a logistical point of view it made sense for the England team to be based at the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University.  Whilst we are no longer the official Home of Women’s Cricket, it will be superb to see the England team taking to the field in the 2015 Ashes at their spiritual home.”

The 2015 Series will be the third time that the Women’s Ashes have been contested across all three formats of the game – one Test match, three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals – and following a review of the first two encounters by the ECB and Cricket Australia, the number of points awarded for winning the Test match will be reduced from six to four.  Two points will still be awarded to each side in the event of a drawn Test, and the ODIs and T20Is will still be worth two points each for a win.

England will be hoping to reproduce their performances from the first two multi-format Women’s Ashes contests and hold the Ashes, having won twelve points to four on home soil in 2013 and ten points to eight Down Under at the start of this year.

Sky Sports and BBC Radio will live broadcast all seven Women’s Ashes matches next summer.  By providing live coverage of every ball of the Series, Sky Sports will cover a women’s Test match for the very first time.

Full Schedule Women’s Ashes Series 2015:

July 21 Royal London ODI* The County Ground, Taunton

July 23 Royal London ODI* Bristol County Ground

July 26 Royal London ODI* New Road, Worcester

August 11 – 14 Kia Women’s Test The Spitfire Ground, Canterbury

August 26 NatWest T20I# The Essex County Ground, Chelmsford

August 28 NatWest T20I# The BrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground, Hove

August 31 NatWest T20I+# SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff