Lauren Winfield and Amy Jones will resume training along with the rest of the England squad on June 22 after returning to the UK from Australia.
Both players were stranded overseas and unable to fly back because of restrictions on international travel imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of most commercial flights, but returned home over the weekend.
The UK government has imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for those arriving from overseas that came into place on June 8, but both players returned home in time to avoid that, meaning they will be able to leave the house when necessary.
Winfield had been celebrating her honeymoon in Queensland following her wedding to long-term partner Courtney Hill, the Leeds Rhinos rugby league player, when the Australian government imposed a lockdown, while Jones was on holiday in Perth.
Australia has suppressed the virus better than most countries, meaning that both players were able to exercise while overseas having been sent gym equipment by the ECB. Winfield also posted pictures on Instagram of her having a net, playing golf and cycling.
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Lisa Keightley, England’s head coach, has also returned from Australia, and is expected to return to training with the squad on June 22.
England’s series against India, initially scheduled to start at the end of June, has been postponed, and ECB officials have been in discussions with the BCCI and CSA about turning South Africa’s tour in September into a tri-series.
“We will get some international cricket, all being well,” Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, told the BBC’s Tuffers and Vaughan Show. “We’re talking to the BCCI and to Cricket South Africa about bringing their women’s teams over to play a tri-series, so we have something really to celebrate with the women’s game in September.”
Harrison warned that the worsening situation in India, where the lockdown is beginning to ease even while the daily number of Covid-19 deaths continues to rise, could jeopardise India’s tour, but said that he was hopeful it would still go ahead.
“When you’re dealing with international teams, you’re dealing with the Covid environment here and overseas as well,” he said. “And if we were in the eye of the storm in this country a few weeks ago in cricketing terms then very much now it looks like that has moved to the subcontinent now where they are experiencing their very tough moment with this pandemic.
“And hopefully they can get over that quickly which will enable us to bring the team over. Hopefully we continue to make progress in defeating this virus and we can have a good tri-series with India and South Africa at the end of the summer.”