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What did you do in your gap year? One teenager from Kent is spending hers captaining England in a World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n On Sunday England take to the field against Zimbabwe in their first match of the inaugural Under-19 Women’s World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nineteen-year-old Grace Scrivens, who sat her A-levels last summer, will be leading them out.<\/span><\/p>\n Describing the moment in mid-December when coach Chris Guest rang to ask if she wanted to lead the side, she says simply: “It was a good phone call.”<\/span><\/p>\n Scrivens, who has also captained Kent, had happily put her name forward for the role but was unsure if she would be chosen.<\/span><\/p>\n But for Guest, her natural leadership qualities shone through.<\/span><\/p>\n “Captaincy has always been something I’ve really enjoyed doing,” Scrivens admits. “I like the pressure of it. I think it helps my game to think about others.”<\/span><\/p>\n The ICC have organised men’s Under-19 World Cups in cricket biennially since 1998, but the women’s version – which has been delayed by two years due to Covid – is the first of its kind.<\/span><\/p>\n South Africa are hosting the tournament, which will be contested by 16 teams, divided into four groups. England face Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Rwanda in Group B.<\/span><\/p>\n Scotland are in a group containing India, South Africa and the UAE.<\/span><\/p>\n The top three teams in each group will progress to the Super Six stage. The final is scheduled for 29 January in Potchefstroom.<\/span><\/p>\n England are expected to easily reach the semi-finals but Scrivens, who exudes determination and focus, has a bigger goal in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n “We want to win the tournament,” she says. “We’re quite clear on that.”<\/span><\/p>\n The England squad have spent weekends over the past three months at Loughborough, training inside and out in all weathers.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was snowing in December and we were out trying to take high catches!” says Scrivens.<\/span><\/p>\n For a group of players who barely knew each other beforehand, the intense schedule has also served a purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n “Coming up to Loughborough every weekend, having dinner with these people and sharing rooms – the way we have all bonded has been quite remarkable in such a short space of time,” adds Scrivens.<\/span><\/p>\n England’s coaching set-up includes former England player Laura Marsh (179 caps), while Lydia Greenway (225 caps) has also spent time with the squad.<\/span><\/p>\n The team’s journey in South Africa has started well, with two wins in warm-up games against the West Indies and Indonesia.<\/span><\/p>\n In the second match, which was extended for practice purposes after England chased down their original target within six overs, Scrivens hit an unbeaten 53 from 29 balls opening the batting.<\/span><\/p>\n Scrivens, who also bowls off-spin, grew up playing cricket in the garden with her dad and older brother. She was selected for Kent Under-11s when she was eight, going on to make her full Kent debut in June 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n At the age of 16, she won a scholarship to Sutton Valence School, and spent two years there juggling her studies with cricket.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was quite tricky. I’d train Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then go to school Monday, Wednesday, and maybe Saturday, if I wasn’t playing in the winter,” Scrivens explains.<\/span><\/p>\n “Mum would drive me around, and I’d work in the car.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m one of those people that if I’m going to do something, I want to do well at it. I’m not just going to go in and mess around, I’m going to concentrate.”<\/span><\/p>\n The hard work paid off: she walked away last summer having achieved A*, A and B grades in her A-levels. That was alongside the professional contract she had bagged 10 months earlier for the London and East region, the Sunrisers.<\/span><\/p>\n The contract was due reward for a player whose talent has continually shone through.<\/span><\/p>\n Sunrisers notoriously failed to win a match in the 2022 season, but Scrivens finished as the joint highest wicket-taker and the third highest run-scorer in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, averaging 50 and scoring four half-centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n The Under-19 World Cup is just the latest example of the exciting opportunities in women’s cricket opening up for Scrivens and the next generation.<\/span><\/p>\n There are now almost 100 professional female cricketers in England and Wales, while The Hundred has broken all records for audiences at a domestic women’s sporting competition.<\/span><\/p>\n Scrivens, who has represented London Spirit in both seasons of The Hundred, describes herself as “riding the wave.”<\/span><\/p>\n “It has felt quite quick!” she says. “It was always a dream to be a professional cricketer, but for it to come at 18 was special.”<\/span><\/p>\n What next? Scrivens has applied to study Psychology and Criminology at the University of Southampton, starting in September, but is undecided on whether to take up her place.<\/span><\/p>\n Another long-standing ambition may yet get in her way.<\/span><\/p>\n “I want to break into the full England squad,” she says. “I’ve been given the taste of it now. So I’ll see where the cricket goes and take it from there!”<\/span><\/p>\n