Sciver-Brunt's eclectic journey from Tokyo to England captain

"It's been absolute carnage. I don't even know how to describe the last six months of our lives."

Katherine Sciver-Brunt is in a hotel in Canterbury and baby Theo has just been ed to her wife Nat. It is two days before Nat's first game as the new full-time England captain.

Nat will soon head to training, in the evening and under lights, to prepare for the first T20 against West Indies.

When Nat walks out to toss the coin on Wednesday, she will do so as only the fourth permanent England skipper this century.

She is the girl born in Tokyo who became captain of England. All-rounder, leader and mother.

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For Sciver-Brunt, it is the culmination of an eclectic journey. Her early years were shaped by the diplomatic career of her mother Julia, now the UK's ambassador to Japan.

Nat Sciver, as she was then, went to school in Poland and the Netherlands before ending her education at Epsom College in Surrey.

Izzy Westbury, who would become Middlesex captain, then a cricket writer and commentator, was two years above Sciver-Brunt at The British School just outside The Hague.

"I thought I was the tomboy, the only girl that played in the football team, then this little upstart popped up," Westbury tells BBC Sport.

"Not only was there another girl in that sphere, but she was really good. She played basketball and tennis, but, in of her sporting career, it could have been football instead of cricket."

For Sciver-Brunt, whose idol was David Beckham, there were football trials with Chelsea before she ed Surrey.

"I had that glimpse into her playing sport as a young teenager, then I didn't see her again until we were playing county cricket," says Westbury.

"When I saw her again, I thought: 'Oh, help.' She dislocated my finger with one of her cover drives. She hit it so hard, even then."

Sciver-Brunt played county cricket as a 17-year-old and was picked by England three years later. Such was the humble nature of the women's game at the time, her one-day international debut against Pakistan was at Louth Cricket Club in Lincolnshire.

"Very quickly she became one of my favourite team-mates to bat with, mainly because of her calmness," says former England batter Lydia Greenway, now the national selector.

"She never got flustered by the situation. It was also her ability to read the game. She probably doesn't get enough credit for how good she is tactically."

Making an impression on the field, and off it.

"She's a bit of a hustler," adds Greenway. "You'll be playing table tennis and all of a sudden she's won 21-0. One of the questions we regularly got asked was 'who is the best dancer"Graphic image of, from left to right, Alex Albon, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman. It is on a blue background with 'Fan Q&A' below the drivers " loading="lazy" src="https://image.staticox.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fstandard%2F480%2Fsprodpb%2F7ff9%2Flive%2Fd42302e0-34b3-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg" width="385" height="216" class="ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950"/>