Freya Davies savouring return of cricket as England bowler prepares for Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy

England bowler Freya Davies is eager to make up for lost time as elite women’s cricket swings back into action for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown on Saturday.

The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, like the men’s Bob Willis Trophy, has been created as a one-off tournament to ensure top level domestic cricket at the end of a Covid-disrupted summer. The 50-over competition will see eight new regional teams compete in two groups, before a final takes place at Edgbaston next month.

England players are available for the opening two rounds of fixtures, which are spread across the bank holiday weekend. Davies, the leading wicket-taker in last year’s edition of the now-defunct Kia Super League, has been allocated to the South East Stars and is set to make her first competitive appearance since returning from the T20 World Cup in March when they host Western Storm at Beckenham on Saturday.

“It's definitely the longest period I've had away from the game entirely since I was a little kid, which was very weird,” Davies told Standard Sport.

“There were about seven days between us getting back from Oz and going into full lockdown, which was a bit manic. Reflecting back on that World Cup made the experience even more incredible, I just wish we could've backed it up with a bit more cricket this summer.

“[But] It's been nice to have some time away from games to work on some technical things that you wouldn't normally have time to in the middle of the summer. I'm just raring to go in a competitive match now.”

The England squad met up for a two-week bio-secure training camp at Derby’s Incora County Ground earlier this month and will return to the venue after the first two rounds of domestic fixtures to prepare for next month’s T20s against West Indies.

The five-match series has been arranged at the last minute after both India and South Africa dropped out of proposed tours because of the pandemic. For a time, it looked as if no international women’s cricket would be played this summer and after seeing her fledgling England career temporarily halted in its tracks, Davies is relieved a solution has been found.

“It's hard to have no series coming up to train for.” Davies added. “But I think we were always hopeful that the ECB would work really hard to get something on and they've come up trumps with this series so we're looking forward to getting going.

“The idea of no international cricket was quite tough for a lot of us to take so we owe West Indies a lot that this series has managed to happen in such a short period of time. It's really exciting to get proper international cricket this year.”

The third match of that series will be shown live on the BBC, the first time in 24-year-old Davies’ life that women’s cricket will have been broadcast on free-to-air television.

“It's so exciting,” Davies said. “Obviously we were supposed to have a lot more on there this summer but it's really exciting for women's cricket to be on free-to-air TV and get a greater audience, for people to see what our game's really about and keep people interested, keep them coming again.”

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