Women’s Ashes: Heather Knight’s England looking to defy difficult preparation and strong Australia | Cricket News

England Women have lost two and drawn one of the previous three Ashes series

It’s now been over six years since England’s men’s side last won the Ashes. For the women’s team, it’s been even longer.

Not since the 2013/14 series have England Women, then captained by Charlotte Edwards, had their hands on the Ashes trophy, with the last three series seeing two Australia victories and a drawn affair.

It’s hard not to think that some of the pitfalls that hit the men’s team during their recent 4-0 Ashes thrashing will also affect the women’s side as they face the Southern Stars in a multi-format series.

Covid restrictions are tight and any player testing positive for the virus towards the backend of the series is in danger of missing out on the 50-over World Cup that follows in March. It is claimed that host nation New Zealand will not allow for any late entries.

The England camp has been hit by Coronavirus, with one support staff member isolating in Canberra having not travelled with the team to Adelaide for the T20 section of the tour. Heather Knight says that the positive case has caused “concerns and anxieties” around the squad.

The skipper has also lamented England’s “comical” and “pretty average” build-up, with rain affecting their training after landing in Australia and a period of “safe living” before they flew out – meaning players could only prepare alone or with members of their households.

The Ashes series is coming into view, with the first T20 international on Thursday

Then you take the quality of the opposition into account.

This is an Australia side who are the reigning T20 World Cup champions – they have won five of the seven editions to be staged – and who embarked on a world record 26-match winning streak in one-day international cricket before it was snapped by India in September. Australia, unsurprisingly, top the ICC rankings in both formats.

They also gave England quite the hiding in the previous Ashes. It was a 12-4 demolition job, with the tourists winning five of the seven matches across the formats and England just the one, a barely-cheered victory in the final T20 in Bristol with the series long since over as a contest.

Despite all that, former England batter Lydia Greenway thinks Knight’s team have a real chance of “exposing cracks” in an Australia team that “has often looked superhuman”.

“Player for player, I think the teams are pretty even,” she told Sky Sports, ahead of Thursday’s first T20 international at Adelaide Oval. “England have a lot more depth now.

“Because Australia have had so much success and are seen as the dominant force, sometimes that can be a factor for the opposition. But if England can throw a few early punches in the T20s then suddenly you can expose cracks in a team that has often looked superhuman.

England opener Tammy Beaumont is in fourth spot in the ICC ODI batting rankings

“With the bat, England have players who are really clear on their roles. Knight, Nat Sciver and Tammy Beaumont are some of the world’s best batters. We also have some really promising bowlers.

“Kate Cross has often played second fiddle to Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt but had a great summer; Freya Davies is also there and with the England A squad you have Lauren Bell and Issy Wong, names people will remember from The Hundred in the summer.

“Sophie Ecclestone is without doubt our No 1, go-to spinner and will be a massive threat in all formats. She is the best spinner in the world and gives England the edge in the spin department.”

Sophie Ecclestone – the top-ranked T20I bowler in the world – took 7-14 in a warm-up match last weekend

The Ashes was due to begin with the standalone Test match, but with the series brought forward a week to allow Australia and England to complete the mandatory 10-day quarantine ahead of the World Cup, it will now start with the three T20s, followed by the Test and then the three ODIs.

Greenway said: “With the T20s first, hopefully that can work in England’s favour. T20 really sharpens you up.

“In the past when we have started with the Test match it can lead to a series that isn’t as close as you want it to be, especially if a side wins that and goes 4-0 up. The opposition is then chasing the series.”

The T20 fixtures, all held in Adelaide with the second and third games staged back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday, will not feature the No 1 ranked T20I batter in the world in Beth Mooney, with the left-handed opener fracturing her jaw in training.

Will Australia leave Ellyse Perry out of the first T20 international?

While Mooney’s Ashes series could be over, Ellyse Perry, a mainstay of the Australia T20 side since 2008, is not guaranteed to play – that is despite the hosts’ head coach Matthew Mott calling her: “probably the greatest player that’s ever played the game of women’s cricket.”

Perry has featured in 126 of Australia’s 144 T20s since her debut 13 years ago and became the first player – male or female – to reach the milestone of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20 international cricket.

But she has been used sparingly with the ball since returning from a hamstring injury sustained in 2020 and has a strike-rate of 103.40 with the bat across the past two years of T20 cricket. In this year’s Big Bash, that strike rate was just 91.32.

Greenway said:” The problem for Ellyse is that all the time she was out, she wasn’t able to develop her game. If you look now at what’s expected from a T20 bowler, you can’t just have that stock delivery. You need a back-of-the-hand slower ball, an off-cutter, a bouncer, a wide-line yorker.

“It’s an interesting headline to read that someone like Perry may not be in Australia’s T20 side and if she doesn’t play, I wonder what impact that will have on her for the rest of the series, as she has always been used to being one of the first names on the team sheet.”

Injuries have hit Australia heavily with spinners Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham currently out as well, while Covid has meant that there has been precious little action for much of the squad since the conclusion of the Big Bash at the end of November.

Greenway said: “We often hold this Australia team up in really high regard and, of course, they have been the most successful team in international cricket for a number of years.

“They have struggled with injuries and in the Big Bash, quite a few of the Australia players didn’t perform that well. I think England will take a bit of heart from that fact. As brilliant as this Australia side is, they are beatable.”

Heather Knight is a tactically astute captain, says Lydia Greenway

An 11-5 win on points for Australia over India looks comprehensive enough, but it did include the end of their long ODI winning streak and but for rain on the Gold Coast, the visitors would have fancied winning the Test match. There is definitely ground for optimism as far as England are concerned.

Greenway has also backed Knight’s captaincy to inspire her team.

She added: “I find Heather’s captaincy journey fascinating. She came in a tricky time when Charlotte Edwards, an absolute legend of the game, was removed, and had massive shoes to fill.

“She has done things her own way and really moulded into a captain she feels comfortable being and not what she feels she should be, which is a great trait of any good captain.

“She is a great leader and is good at giving time to players. She is not someone who is consumed by the cricket on a day-by-day basis, while she is tactically very astute and thrives under pressure.”

Winning this series could rank as one of Knight’s greatest achievements and it may just be doable, Covid fears, poor preparation and all aside.