Give England time after Ashes 'scarring'

BBC News

17-07-2025

England need to be given time to rebuild and recover from the Ashes "scarring" at the beginning of the year, says seamer Kate Cross. Cross, 33, was in the Ashes one-day international and Test squads but did not play as she struggled with a back injury, with England eventually losing 16-0 in the points-based series. After strong media criticism surrounding the performances and their attitude, England replaced then-coach Jon Lewis and captain Heather Knight with Charlotte Edwards and Nat Sciver-Brunt respectively, and they comfortably won all six white-ball matches against West Indies in their first series in charge at the beginning of this summer.However, the team is once again facing scrutiny after a 3-2 T20 series defeat by India and a four-wicket defeat in the first ODI, but Cross says that expectations need to be managed."Nobody is happy with that scoreline, but it feels like so much was learned from it and the conversations that were had," Cross said on the No Balls podcast, which she hosts with former team-mate and now BBC Test Match Special pundit Alex Hartley. "We're not going to win every game of cricket that we play, so maybe it is about adjusting the expectations about what it all looks like at the minute."There's a lot going on and there's a lot of scarring from that Ashes series and we just need some time to get things right."
The episode was recorded before the opening ODI but Cross also expanded on comments made during the T20 series by Edwards and stand-in captain Tammy Beaumont, who deputised for the injured Sciver-Brunt, regarding the team being "in transition". Cross said the comments were misinterpreted, and that Beaumont was most likely referring to the new coach, captain and style as opposed to a transition of new players coming through."I'm reading between the lines here because I haven't spoken to Tammy about it, but I think the transition is that we have changed our leadership roles, we've got a new captain, then we had a stand-in captain during the T20s."We're not silly – we know that we should be a better team than we are right now but also, we are still learning. Maybe I'm just asking people to give us a bit more time."We are under scrutiny, we know that. We are an international team. But we are still just working a lot of things out as a 'new' group."
These three ODIs are England's last before the 50-over World Cup starts in India at the end of September, though Sciver-Brunt's side will play the hosts and defending champions Australia in two warm-up matches. England's first match of the tournament is on 3 October against South Africa in Bengaluru. Hartley, a World Cup winner in 2017, agreed that expectations need to be tempered regarding England's chances in the tournament considering the recent turnaround in leadership, and that improvement would "not come overnight" after Edwards' appointment. She added that the 2026 T20 World Cup, which is being hosted in England, will be the right time to "expect bigger things" from the group. England's fielding has been subject to criticism throughout the series as a significant area for improvement but Cross added that some of the "narrative" from the press was not fair. "It's always what we have wanted. More media attention means more bums on seats, more ticket sales, more money into the game," Cross said."But it's really difficult to replicate the pressure you're under in a match, to a training session – no matter how hard you try, it will never feel the same as doing it in front of 10,000 people at Old Trafford or wherever."It's just not quite transitioning from training on to the pitch yet but I really don't feel like we are that far away from it looking a whole lot better. "The narrative is that we have to be perfect. No cricket team out there is ever going to have the perfect game, even when Australia are playing at their best they still fumble or bowl bad balls. It feels a bit like we are suddenly expected to be perfect and that doesn't feel very fair to me."