Lauren Bell

Renowned for her sharp swinging deliveries that often uproot the opposition batter’s stumps, Lauren Bell is an English cricketer who represents the women’s national team. Born on the day after New Year’s Eve in 2001, Bell grew up in Wiltshire, England. Apart from her academics, Lauren had an active interest in sports, especially football and cricket.

The tall, lanky girl slowly transitioned to the higher level in football as a teenager, where she represented the Reading FC Academy. She went on to represent her State in Football and athletics, making a positive mark in the respective sports. However, at the age of 16, her career transitioned to cricket, where she took up the gentleman’s game positively. 

Bell’s father suggested she focus on one sport, as the family wasn’t able to afford her playing multiple sports. This is where her focus completely shifted to cricket, and she took up the sport seriously. As a late-teenage, she made an entry into the Southern Vipers cricket academy. The decision was not only governed by her father but also by her own assessment of skills in the game. 

The good thing about Lauren Bell was that she had an elder sister, Colette, whom she looked up to. Colette followed a similar path, led by an example in the Bell family. The family's healthy environment fostered her love for cricket, and she took giant steps at a young age. Bell was the first girl to represent Bradfield College’s 1st XI cricket team, and by the age of 14, she had already made her Women’s County Championship debut for Berkshire, marking her greatness in the sport despite playing football and taking part in athletics.

In 2018, Bell debuted for the Vipers in the Women’s Cricket Super League and went on to play the final, where the Western Storm doused them to emerge victorious. The next year, the right-arm pacer was loaned to Middlesex for the Women’s Twenty20 Cup before returning to the Vipers squad for the 2020 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Later that year, she was awarded a full-time domestic contract in the English Women's circuit, marking her rapid rise. The Wiltshire-bred was one of the 41 women cricketers to have received the contract.

Her impressive domestic records helped her get a call-up to the England Women’s Academy side against Australia A in 2019. This was just the beginning of her international exposure, and the fact that she could tail the ball into the right-handers and knock the stumps over attracted the attention of the English selectors. 

Lauren Bell was touring with the squad for the tour down under in December 2021 before making her international debut against South Africa Women in Taunton in 2022. She picked a couple of wickets in the first innings of the one-off Test, baiting Lizelle Lee and Marizanne Kapp with figures of 16-4-47-2. In their next innings, he went wicketless despite four maidens in 14 overs and conceding only 26 runs. Ultimately, the match was drawn as Nat Sciver-Brunt’s all-round brilliance was neutralised by Kapp’s three-dimensional greatness.

A month later, Bell made her ODI debut against the same opposition at Bristol, where she picked up a solitary wicket at the fag end of the second innings by getting rid of Shabnim Ismail. On the back of Sophia Dunkley’s 93-ball 107, Tammy Beaumont’s 81-ball 58, Emma Lamb's 65-ball 67, and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 47-ball 63, England posted 337/5 in 50 overs, eventually winning the contest by 114 runs.

Two months later, the speedster made her T20I debut against India in Chester-le-Street. She bowled three overs and returned wicketless by conceding 25 runs at an economy of 8.33. Kiran Navgire of India was the other debutant in the game. Sarah Glenn’s four-wicket haul restricted India Women to 132/7, which the Three Lions chased down with nine wickets remaining, thanks to the onslaught from Sophia Dunkley and Alice Capsey. 

The 24-year-old’s best with the ball came against New Zealand in July 2024 when Bell bagged her maiden five-wicket haul to assist in England’s clean sweep against the White Ferns. This came on the back of a revamped bowling action to gain extra pace and swing the ball even more effectively. Although it wasn’t an instant success after the revamp, her tireless efforts helped her reach newer heights in bowling. 

Apart from her international stellar shows, the Swindon-born has been a prominent name for the Vipers and Southern Brave in England’s domestic circuit and the Hundred respectively. She has consistently been among the top wicket-takers for the Vipers while being economical and outright effective for the Brave’s in the Women’s Hundred competition. 

Lauren also attracted franchises and teams in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and the Women’s Premier League (WPL), having represented Sydney Thunder and the UP Warriorz. She played just a couple of games for the Thunder, returning with a solo wicket while yet to feature in a WPL game. After being snared by INR 30 lakhs by the UP Warriorz in the inaugural WPL auction 2023, she was benched throughout the tourney as the likes of Grace Harris, Sophie Ecclestone, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, and Chamari Athapaththu were the frontliners to fill the four spots reserved for the overseas players.

In the next WPL edition, Lauren withdrew from participating to prioritise her upcoming national commitments. "It was a hard decision," Lauren cited. "I love India, I loved my time at the WPL last year. But at this stage of my career, I just wanted to focus everything on getting ready for this New Zealand series and playing for England because it's all I've ever wanted to do. Hopefully in the future there will be more opportunities to go to the WPL without any clashes," the pace machine added.

It is also worth noting that Lauren achieved greater heights in just three years of international exposure. She has been a part of the Women’s T20 World Cup, a record-breaking Ashes, and is likely to be a cornerstone in England’s bowling unit for the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in India. She will also be key for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, slated to be staged in the UK in 2026.

Nicknamed ‘Shard’ due to her six-foot figure, Lauren continues to be an exciting prospect for the England unit with plenty of cricket left in her career. The fact that she adopted slower ones to take her white-ball format slog over game upwards, speaks volumes about her willingness to learn attitude. Without a doubt, she will be the backbone of the England cricket team in the years to come.

(As of June 2025)