Deepti Sharma, whose straight six sealed London Spirit’s first Hundred crown last summer, won’t feature in this year’s competition. The India all-rounder has chosen a short break, turning down her £36,000 deal to ease an ever-heavier schedule and keep fresh for the autumn’s fifty-over World Cup on home soil.
Spirit, already without the injured Heather Knight, have drafted in Australia’s Charli Knott and handed the captaincy to England off-spinner Charlie Dean. Grace Harris takes Meg Lanning’s slot, while Chris Liddle replaces Ashley Noffke as head coach – a lot of change for a side that only lifted the trophy 11 months ago.
Sharma’s withdrawal leaves the women’s Hundred without a single Indian player. The BCCI rarely grants No-Objection Certificates to the men, and the women who appeared in previous editions went undrafted or, like Sharma, opted for rest.
Trent Rockets have made a leadership switch of their own. Off-spinning all-rounder Ash Gardner steps up after Nat Sciver-Brunt asked for a lighter load on the back of taking England’s reins. Gardner called the promotion “an honour”, words that summed up both her pride and the respect she holds for Sciver-Brunt’s decision.
In the men’s competition David Willey inherits the Rockets armband from Lewis Gregory, who slipped across to Manchester Originals. Willey, a £200,000 draft pick, has skippered Northamptonshire, Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers in white-ball cricket and should slot in smoothly.
Each of the eight clubs will add two men and two women as ‘wildcards’ next week, picked off recent Vitality Blast form. Birmingham Phoenix have already moved, bringing Nottinghamshire batter-keeper Freddie McCann in for Derbyshire quick Harry Moore, ruled out with a back stress fracture.
The 2025 edition runs from 5–31 August and is widely viewed as a bridge year. From 2026 the ECB plans to pass day-to-day control of the teams to host counties and new private investors. How that shapes player availability, overseas signings and the overall feel of the tournament remains to be seen, but officials hope a smoother, less centralised model will follow.
Workload management has become a talking point across the women’s game. India squeezed a home series, the WPL and a full England tour into five months; Australia’s leading players bounced from the WBBL to an India visit of their own. A Hundred season, however lucrative, is simply one commitment too many for some.
For Spirit it means stitching a new combination together at speed. For the competition it is a reminder that even breakout stars sometimes need to sit one out – and that smart scheduling, not just star names, will decide the Hundred’s long-term health.
