Women’s Ashes: Calls grow for Alana King to play in T20 component of series after more wickets in ODI

Alana King has claimed a five-wicket haul for the first time in her one-day-international career to seal a clean-sweep over England and spark calls for her to be recalled to the Twenty20 team. King’s Perth Scorchers coach Becky Grundy believes the time is right for the West Australian to play her first T20 international in almost two years. And she has also declared the leg-spinner has never bowled better. King took 5-46 off 8.2 overs to bowl Australia to a third straight victory over England in Hobart on Friday. It means they finish the 50-over component of the multi-format Ashes series with a 6-0 lead and puts them in a position to wrap it up before the historic day-night Test at the MCG. The leg-spinner took the wickets of Dani Wyatt-Hodge, Scorchers teammate Amy Jones, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Filer as she tore through England’s middle-order. The visitors were all out for 222, chasing Australia 8-308, which was built off a maiden ODI century for all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner. West Aussie Beth Mooney made 50 as Gardner plundered her run-a-ball ton. Gardner also took an acrobatic catch while straddling the boundary to help King dismiss Ecclestone. King has taken 11 wickets in three matches and is easily the leading wicket-taker through the first part of the series, ahead of Ecclestone, who has seven and teammate Kim Garth with five. The series resumes with the first 20-over match in Sydney on Monday, before games in Canberra and Adelaide later in the week. But King has found herself on the outer of the national T20 side and did not play a single game at last year’s World Cup. She was the leading wicket-taker in this summer’s WBBL. Her blistering form and an injury to fellow spinner Sophie Molineux means her case is as strong as ever. “She is doing everything she can, she has had consistent performances in the WBBL over a number of years now and she is bowling arguably the best that she has in this ODI part of the Ashes,” Grundy told The West Australian. “With Molineux unavailable that maybe opens the door, so any kind of form that she can take coming from this ODI part of the Ashes gives her every chance. “We have spoken about it before, all she can do is keep doing her role, keep performing and then the selection is taken out of her hands a little bit, but I’m hopeful with how she is playing and with that door opening she will get her chance.” Former Australian captain Lisa Sthaleker said King should play in the T20 series after she spun Australia to victory at the Junction Oval earlier this week. “She’s consistent, she’s a wicket-taker, she’s arguably one of the best bowlers in the Australian line-up,” she told Around the Wicket. “As an opposition, I don’t want to face her. So they have got to find room for her in this T20 side.”