Team Preview: France

Making their maiden appearance in a World Cup qualifier, France are one of the most excitable teams on the circuit. Led by the effervescent Emmanuelle Brelivet, they come into the tournament with the aim to not just learn, but also “show we are playing cricket in a good level in France too”.

Team talk: Following a 0-5 loss in their series against Germany last month, Brelivet admitted that her team had taken plenty of lessons from that performance.

“It was a really good experience against Germany because we played five games against the same team. For us the objective was to really know our team well – to know our strengths, and also what we have to really improve [upon] before going to Spain. We saw we have a very, very good team spirit. We are very close and supporting each other, and we also learnt that we have to be more aggressive from the batting side. We worked a lot on this during the last week.”

Looking to take as much as they can from their experiences in Spain, the skipper added, “It’s a really good opportunity to learn because we will play against high level teams. So, to be on the ground and to play against them we will learn a lot. And as you know in cricket anything can happen in a cricket game.”

Key player: Opening batter Jennifer King is France’s highest run-getter with 175 runs in nine innings. She also holds the record for the country’s highest individual score in T20Is – an unbeaten 46 against Austria in 2019.

Brelivet singled out King as a player the side would rely on if they were to excel in the tournament. “I would say as a batswoman we have Jennifer King, who is a really good batswoman. When she feels confident on the ground, it just shows and she is batting very well.”

One to Watch: 23-year-old Marie Violleau made her T20I debut against Germany this July. According to her skipper, she is a rapidly improving player, having only taken up the game a few months before her debut.

“I think the youngest player in this team is Marie Violleau, She has started to play cricket only few months ago. I can see she will have a really good future in cricket. She is already a very good fielder, starting to bat well and she is bowling also. Allrounder.”

Squad: Emmanuelle Brelivet (captain), Jennifer King (vice-captain), Lara Aramas, Cindy Bretéché, Tara Britton, Alix Brodin, Maëlle Cargouët, Emma Chancé, Thea Graham, Magali Marchello, Poppy McGeown, Tracy Rodriguez, Marie Violleau, Irma Vringnaud