As a dispiriting tour plumbs new depths, lessons need to be learned if England are to move on
Valkerie Baynes25-Jan-2025Amid England’s 2019 Ashes capitulation, Clare Connor, the ECB’s then managing director of women’s cricket, announced a wide-ranging review looking at preparation, selection and player development.The funds poured into the women’s game, and crowed about by the organisation after that 12-4 drubbing at the hands of Australia, have done wonders for the sport, and yet here we are.England are 12-0 down and staring down the very real prospect of losing 16-0 after next week’s Test and failing to register a point for the first time since the Ashes became a multi-format series in 2013.It took a while for things to change after 2019 but they did, for a time. The post-pandemic return series in Australia was beset by quarantine restrictions and bad weather which did little for the touring side’s morale as they again lost 12-4.But in 2023, under new coach Jon Lewis, England fought back from 6-0 down to draw 8-8 at home and Australia retained the Ashes by the barest of means. And that may just be England’s problem now.For all the controversy over England’s perceived fitness levels, much of their downfall appears to be to do with mental matters. There is little evidence that they have eradicated the fielding errors that contributed to their T20 World Cup exit in October, where they fell apart against West Indies in the group stage.Poor shot selection has been a running theme throughout this Ashes for a batting line-up which slumped to England’s second-lowest T20I total when they were bowled out for 90 and Australia romped to a 72-run victory in the third T20I on Saturday.After the result at Adelaide Oval, Lewis also said his bowlers had been “sloppy” in terms of line and length up to that point, when England’s spinners in particular restricted Australia to what he believed was a par score of 162 for 5.But Lewis didn’t believe that England’s ability to push Australia 18 months ago had made them over-confident heading into this series.”I think it may have raised expectation outside of the group,” he said. “I definitely don’t think it gave us too much confidence. It gave us some confidence. We were incredibly aware of how strong Australia are in this part of the world and everywhere else in the world.”They’re a really good cricket team. We knew that when we came in, we knew this was going to be a really hard-fought competition but also a really hard competition for us to come out on top in.”What I would say is I think our performance in England last time probably stimulated the Australians into making some decisions about how they wanted to play and they’ve come out and they’ve showed some changes in how they’ve approached their cricket and they’ve been really impressive. They’ve played better cricket than us and we are in this position for a reason.”Fielding errors persisted in Adelaide, alongside familiar batting errors•Getty ImagesEngland’s mantra under Lewis has been to “inspire and entertain”, so is it not reasonable that the public would expect a lot of their team, who in the aftermath of that 2019 failure have become a better resourced, highly professionalised outfit? Unlike Australia, who have responded to their 2023 wake-up call by coming up with all the answers before England have even thought of the questions, it seems their visitors aren’t learning their lessons.”There isn’t a lot of time between games to go away and think and work and make a change,” Lewis said. “We have pretty honest conversations behind closed doors. The players are really honest with how they’re going.”One of the things that stood out for me across this tour is actually we’ve practised really, really well but we haven’t played very well. So the bit that we’re missing is the bit when we cross the line as to how we go and perform.”We’ve got some really good players and we haven’t been able to transfer that onto the field, which is a great shame. There’s a great opportunity for us to show what a good cricket team we are and we haven’t been able to do that.”Lewis had expressed concern ahead of the tour about the tight schedule, but it is the same for both sides. Not being able to execute in pressure situations has only been an issue for one and all of the above speaks to mental over physical shortcomings.And while you’ll struggle to find a fitter side than Australia, you won’t find one tougher above the shoulders. Yes, they stumbled in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, and at the last Ashes, and yet here we are. Australia have learned, improved and then pulverised their opposition.”I feel like there’s been moments in those games where if we pushed home our advantage at certain points in the match we could have come away some points in probably the first three or four games,” Lewis said. “In fact the first five games I think we’ve been at times in positions to take some points.”But I feel like in the critical moments in the games the Australians have used their experience and their understanding of the conditions to play in a way that’s been able to get them across the line and you have to take your hat off to them. They understand how to win and we disrupted them a little bit over in England last time out and we came here with confidence that we could do the same here but they haven’t let us do it.”Related
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Australia have done so with captain Alyssa Healy and star allrounder Ash Gardner both out injured for all three T20s, which has only emphasised their depth. Beth Mooney has kept wicket with distinction in Healy’s absence and dominated the batting, her unbeaten 94 on a slow Adelaide Oval wicket the pinnacle.But England aren’t without depth. In Adelaide, they brought Alice Capsey in for Maia Bouchier, moving Sophia Dunkley to the top of the order with Capsey at No.3 as well as adding effectively to the spin-bowling ranks. They had quick Lauren Filer at the ready when Lauren Bell succumbed to a migraine and dropped legspinner Sarah Glenn for left-armer Linsey Smith to maintain their preferred line-up of three frontline spin-bowlers.But again Australia did better with only captain Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt-Hodge reaching double figures as each of the home side’s six bowlers took wickets, led by legspinner Georgia Wareham’s career-best 3 for 11.Lewis’s contention that the 2023 Ashes spurred Australia on to greater heights isn’t in dispute. Mooney said in her post-match press conference that after that tour and their T20 World Cup disappointment, “we probably just had been letting ourselves down a little bit in different areas of the game” and “we wanted to really put a marker out there and keep moving the women’s game forward”.The question now is, can this Ashes spur his side on in the same way?
