The Analysis: All eyes on Charlie Dean's captaincy

NICK FRIEND AT THE AGEAS BOWL: Replacing Heather Knight in charge of London Spirit for this year's competition, the 21-year-old's first assignment came against a team mostly made up of her Southern Vipers teammates

Heather Knight had hardly seen Charlie Dean bowl before start of The Hundred last year. Twelve months on, she is standing in as captain for London Spirit, with Knight absent owing to the hip-joint problem that ruled her out of the Commonwealth Games.

On the surface, it felt like a bold call: Dean doesn't turn 22 until December, and this time in 2021 hadn't yet made her international debut. Her Kia Super League record – somewhat remarkably – amounted to a single wicket in seven appearances across three seasons, played out mostly on club grounds worlds away from the platform offered up by this tournament, where an attendance of more than 8,000 at the Ageas Bowl was far greater than in any of those.

So, for all the talk of Alice Capsey and Issy Wong, there is a strong argument to call Dean the first graduate of The Hundred, her England career beginning four weeks after Spirit's dreary campaign had come to an end, although she had begun the 2021 season with 10 Heyhoe Flint Trophy wickets in four matches to serve notice of her talent. "Her nous probably impressed me the most," said Knight at the time. "I hadn't seen much of her at all before I played with her at London Spirit."

She arrives in this year's competition – captaining serial winners Beth Mooney and Megan Schutt – as England's first-choice off-spinner, impressing with her maturity as much as her bowling.

Collar up, she stationed herself in the ring whenever possible, beginning at extra cover and shifting to mid-off, before swapping between square leg and cover-point. In a competition where time is of the essence, she found the time to remain in regular conversation with her bowlers, while – with her head endlessly spinning on its axis – checking on the angles of her fielders.

^{Last year's runners-up, Southern Brave, look a strong outfit once again (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)}

It took just 10 deliveries for her to enter the attack, and she ought to have made an immediate impact, only for Naomi Dattani to shell a straightforward chance to dismiss Smriti Mandhana at mid-on. The next ball went for four. Her figures by the close were far from flattering, and she was carted over long-on by Freya Kemp to signal the game's end, but it was a mark of her confidence that she had saved five balls of off-spin for the penultimate set.

Not that this should come as much of a surprise: this isn't Dean's first experience as a captain, having led Hampshire through the age groups and occasionally at senior level. And though it is far too early to talk about succession-planning for England's post-Knight era, it is worth pointing out that Dean was handed the reins three times when England Academy played in 2021 with eyes on the future.

Under Trevor Griffin, Spirit's coach, it was perhaps a shock that Sophie Luff wasn't given the job, given their longstanding association: Luff played under him in the Kia Super League and has been his captain at Western Storm this summer. Separately, she has led Somerset for almost a decade, while Dattani is a long-time Middlesex skipper.

Mooney, who made an unbeaten 97 in a losing cause, has sporadic captaincy experience in the Women's Big Bash and previously with Australia A. That she ended up on the losing side was, ironically, down to a group of players who Dean knows better than most.

All eight of the English players included in Southern Brave's team represent Southern Vipers in the regional competition, with the void of Dean – for whom this must have been an unusual experience – filled by Molly Strano, the leading wicket-taker in WBBL history. Even the head coach – Charlotte Edwards – remains the same from a Vipers unit that is used to winning.

^{Danni Wyatt made a half century for Southern Brave in their chase (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)}

They are unbeaten in 2022, have lost just four times since the revamped structure came into being and would fancy themselves to compete in The Hundred – including against a Spirit team over-reliant on its international core – given the cohesion they've developed as the all-conquering, dominant team to emerge in the last two years.

They deserve plenty of the credit for Dean's progression – Edwards in particular, whose involvement extends to coaching her at Hampshire and captaining her on Dean's KSL debut in 2017.

At the Ageas Bowl, however, they ensured her stint at the helm began with a defeat that was founded on Danni Wyatt's half century in response to Mooney's lone hand and the composure of Sophia Dunkley to see the hosts home after Wyatt was run out taking a sharp single to backward point.

A baptism of fire, then, for the youngest captain in The Hundred's short history, but a lesson for which she – and English cricket – will be stronger down the line.

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