England Women’s head coach Charlotte Edwards admitted that her team was ‘massively challenged’ by India, but insisted it wasn’t a “reality check”, as she believes the four-time World Cup winners are capable of beating any side when the World Cup arrives.
In the build-up to the tournament, England lost a three-match ODI series at home to India 2–1. It was a setback for the hosts, who had come into the series on the back of six consecutive white-ball wins at home against the West Indies. India Women first defeated them in the T20I series and then overcame the Nat Sciver-Brunt-led England side in the ODIs.
England were without the services of their former captain and all-rounder Heather Knight, who missed the series due to a hamstring injury.
“We were massively challenged, and that’s how we want women’s cricket to be. It wasn’t a reality check. We know we can beat India. We are going into a World Cup where, if we play at our best, we can beat any team,” Edwards told the BBC’s Stumped podcast.
Fielding has been a major area of concern for Edwards and her team, and she acknowledges that it needs improvement.
“It is something we are working on; we know we have that tag now. Sometimes I get frustrated because we can drop one catch and get labelled a bad fielding team, even though we have fielded really well otherwise. I am confident we can reach a point where people speak really positively about our fielding,” Edwards added.
Edwards has held the top job for less than six months, and the upcoming World Cup will be her first major assignment as head coach. The England Women’s team will begin their campaign against South Africa Women on 3 October. Before that, they will play two warm-up games against India Women and Australia Women.
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