BRISTOL Phoenix and Gloucestershire all-rounder Alex Macdonald has earned a place in the England Women’s Academy Squad.

It will be the 22-year-old's second involvement with the squad having enjoyed a successful tour to Sri Lanka with them in January and February this year.

Macdonald, the reigning Gloucestershire Women’s player of the year, made 552 runs at an average of 92 in the 2013 women’s County Championship.

Th2 22-year-old, who grew up in Alveston and now lives in Frampton Cotterell, missed most of the 2014 season through injury but returned to score a century against Scotland in the county’s final game.

Gloucestershire Danielle Gibson, 13, has been named in the under-15 programme for the first time and the pair will be joined in the England Winter Performance set-up by Gloucestershire Cricket Board clubs and programmes officer Lisa Pagett, who has been named assistant coach with the under-15s.

Pagett, who also coaches the county’s senior women and under-15 team, said: “I am delighted for Alex and Danielle, it is a fantastic achievement for them and it is also great news for the women and girls’ game in Gloucestershire.

“Both girls thoroughly deserve their call-ups and I am sure they will grasp the opportunity with both hands.

“Alex’s selection in spite of missing so much cricket shows how highly she is thought of. Her hard-work and dedication has always been one of her strengths and she showed that again this year by battling back from injury and scoring a century in her first game back.”

Both players will attend a series of training camps at the National Cricket Performance Centre (NCPC) in Loughborough throughout the winter.

The 12-strong Academy squad will be overseen by former Australia international Lisa Keightley, while ex-England batter Caroline Foster (née Atkins) is head coach of the 21-member under-15 squad.

Other Gloucestershire players to have achieved England recognition in the past include current Berkshire and former Bristol Phoenix player, Fi Morris, who made the England under-19 team in 2012, and Cirencester’s Eve Alder, who has recently graduated from the under-15 development programme.

Dumbleton all-rounder Gibson, who goes to Dean Close school in Cheltenham, has been selected after impressing coaches at a talent identification camp in July.

She has enjoyed an excellent 2014, becoming the first girl to play for all four county teams – under-13, 15, 17 and senior women – in the same season.

In total she scored 575 runs at a strike rate of 123, including a highest score of 107 in just 60 balls against Devon.

Gibson also took 16 wickets and 19 fielding dismissals.

She is also one of only two girls to be part of the Gloucestershire Emerging Players Programme.

Pagett said: “Dani is an exciting, instinctive cricketer that can change the game with bat, ball or in the field. She hits the ball as hard as anyone her age – female or male - and can take the game away from a team in a short space of time.

“She has performed well for every team she has played for and despite being just 13 didn’t look out of place when she made her debut for the senior women this season.”