England will be expected to get out of their group comfortably at the T20 World Cup. For the last six years, they have consistently been the second-best team in the world behind the formidable Australia.

Their first match is on Saturday against West Indies — who on their day can be world beaters but haven’t won a cricket match since September last year.

India is expected to be their only real threat in the group and a loss to them could prove costly as it would likely set up a meeting with Australia in the semi-finals — who are expected to top Group 1.

A meeting England would rather avoid based on their recent history against the old foes in T20I knockout cricket.

Between 2012 and 2018, Australia and England met in the final of the T20 World Cup on three occasions — out of the four tournaments that occurred during that time.

Heather Knight of England pulls the ball during the 1st Royal London Series One Day International between England Women and South Africa Women at The County Ground on 11 July, 2022 in Northampton, England. (Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images)

Australia beat them in all three clashes.

However, according to captain Heather Knight, England are focused on taking it one game at a time at this stage.

“Our job as a team is to play the group games in front of us and to try to get out of the group stages,” said the skipper.

“Everyone starts on the same page, we’re pretty clear as a team how we want to go about things and in a T20 World Cup, you don’t have much chance to slip up and our sole focus is on that.

“Us as a squad we’ve brought in a few young players (from the under-19 team) which has kept us old girls on our toes, and we’ve got that real nice balance of youth and experience.”

Young and old

Knight suffered a hip injury last year, forcing her to miss a chunk of the season, including South Africa’s three-month tour of the country.

While vice-skipper and star all-rounder Natalie Sciver-Brunt also took a mental health break toward the end of the year.

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“Last summer we had a few players out, myself included, and while that was tough from a performance point of view it was quite valuable in terms of exposing some of our younger players and giving them the opportunity to showcase their skill on the big stage,” said Knight.

A number of these younger players will be on show during the upcoming World Cup such as Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey and Maia Bouchier who will all be playing in their first T20 World Cup.

None of the aforementioned players are over 25 while Capsey is still only 18.

“[We also have] a lot of senior players eager for T20 success. We haven’t lifted the trophy since 2009 and we’d quite like to put that right,” said Knight.

The team only has one player who has tasted World Cup success in 2009 in their World Cup squad for the 2023 edition. The evergreen Katherine Sciver-Brunt will lead with the new ball in South Africa again 14 years after her player-of-the-match performance in the final against New Zealand in 2009.

Nat Scriver of the Stars bats during the Women’s Big Bash League WBBL match between the Melbourne Stars and the Sydney Sixers at North Sydney Oval, on 22 November, 2020, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“We felt in a great place in 2020 before the rain intervened at Sydney but in many ways that feels like a lifetime ago, with Covid-19 entering the mix soon after,” said Knight

“We know on our day that we can be a match for anyone, our job now is to ensure we have our day as regularly as possible — to keep being aggressive, taking the game forward and backing our strengths.”

Aggressive approach

Head coach of the England Women’s side, Jon Lewis, was part of the England men’s setup during the Eoin Morgan tenure when white-ball cricket was revolutionised into the aggressive game it is today.

He also worked with Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes as part of the red-ball coaching staff that helped turn “Bazball” into the aggressive phenomenon it is in Test cricket today.

“[Lewis] has come into our group as Head Coach and with it, he’s brought additional clarity about how we want to play our cricket. We want to be aggressive, we want to choose the positive option when the game’s in the balance and we want to entertain and inspire,” said Knight. 

That aggressive approach has been brought to South Africa. England clobbered 246 runs against the Proteas Women’s side in a warm-up match in Stellenbosch on Monday.

Opening bat Sophia Dunkley smashed 59 runs in only 19 balls to lay the foundation for the further onslaught.

SA managed a respectable total of 229 in reply so the diamond that is the English Women’s cricket team still needs a bit more polishing. 

For England to make it to the final and lift the trophy on 26 February, their diamond needs to be shining brighter than ever. DM