By Dave Clark
Sarah Taylor admits Holly Colvin's decision to take a break from cricket has come as a blow - but the wicketkeeper-batsman is fully behind her Sussex and England team-mate.
The 24-year-old Colvin has decided to pursue a career outside cricket, and therefore did not travel Down Under for an Ashes defence that steps up with England facing Australia A in a two-day game at Perth from tomorrow.
The left-arm spinner, who plans to return to the international fold at some point, has 174 wickets for her country across all three forms of the game.
However, recently-crowned Women's Twenty20 cricketer of the year Taylor believes the time is right for off-spinners Danni Hazell and Danni Wyatt to step up and bowl Colvin's overs.
Speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk about Colvin's decision, Taylor said: “She's brilliant in our side and we completely appreciate what she wants to do with her life.
“Every single one of us supported her, none of us were disappointed with her at all, and it's just nice to see her picking something that she wanted to do and really going for it.
“We've still got complete and utter faith in the two Dannis in our team, so we have have a good spin duo there and that is just overs we've got to cover in terms of spin.
“She [Colvin] is a brilliant player - probably one off the best spinners in the world. We've got to move forward and replace her; she'll be a bad miss.
“Danni Hazell and Danni Wyatt have a got a big role to play for us in this Ashes series coming up.”
Taylor was speaking during a day at Sky's studios to promote the Women's Ashes, and believes the ever-increasing profile of the women's game can continue to grow.
“The amount of games that we have on TV, not just Sky Sports and BBC, but the ECB do a live feed if it's not on TV, so pretty much every game is covered,” she added.
“That's exactly what we need in terms of raising the profile of cricket. I know that a lot of girls spend a lot of time trying to do that and trying to raise the profile so the more coverage we can get the better.
“In terms of a few years ago when we first started playing, there wasn't any of this so we're not taking it for granted at all and we're just trying to get more and more coverage - as much as we can.”
Follow the Women's Ashes ball-by-ball via the following media:
Live Scores: www.ecb.co.uk and www.cricket.com.au
Twitter: @ECB_cricket and @SouthernStars
Television: live stream at www.cricket.com.au
Radio: 5 Live Sports Extra, ABC Grandstand or online via www.cricket.com.au/live/audio-stream