The Charlotte Edwards and Nat Sciver-Brunt era began with a strong 3-0 clean sweep for England Women against West Indies Women in the T20I series at home. It was England’s first series after their dreadful 2025 Ashes tour in Australia, where they failed to win a single match in any format. Nothing went as planned during that series. One area that was widely criticised was their fielding.
Throughout the Ashes, England missed many chances. They dropped catches and lost control of key moments. Australia took full advantage of those mistakes. For example, in the one-off Test match, England dropped eight catches and missed run-out chances. Both Annabel Sutherland and Beth Mooney survived those opportunities and took the game away from them. So, heading into this series, all eyes were on how England would perform in the field. Fans would have been pleased to see the improvement in this area.
After that heavy Ashes defeat, then-head coach John Lewis said Australia had the upper hand in terms of athleticism and physicality, though he defended the fitness of his players. Soon after, Lewis left, and Charlotte Edwards was appointed the new head coach. Nat Sciver-Brunt also replaced Heather Knight as captain.
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Lauren Bell, what a catch! 😳
Mary Earps, is that you?! 👏 pic.twitter.com/g8Nb9zhpSG
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 21, 2025
Ahead of the West Indies series, with the ODI World Cup only months away, Edwards was asked about her plans for team fitness. She said: “Clearly, we had to touch on the fitness issue. When I came in, I said it’s all about individual improvement for the first six months. So before the World Cup, it’s about individuals improving as much as they can in that time. I’m not going to set fitness standards because there hadn’t been any standards in place, so I felt like I was defeating the object.”
“But hopefully in 12 months’ time, the players are very aware that there will be minimum fitness standards come this time next year, which the players will have to adhere to. There has to be more accountability in the area. But what I will say is that I’ve been so impressed with their standards, the way they’ve gone about stuff. I couldn’t be more impressed in that area,” she added.
Every angle of that insane catch from Sophia Dunkley 🤲 pic.twitter.com/w6s2FQbBzC
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 23, 2025
It was clear from her words that fitness and fielding needed improvement. Thankfully, fans got to see some progress in this T20I series. In the first match, Lauren Bell took a brilliant diving catch at short fine leg to dismiss Mandy Mangru. In the second game, Sophia Dunkley grabbed a screamer. Zaida James tried to go over mid-on, but Dunkley moved quickly to her left and took a stunning one-handed catch. In the final match, Sciver-Brunt took a well-judged catch while running back to remove Jannillea Glasgow. Danni Wyatt-Hodge also pulled off a brilliant effort near the boundary. She timed her jump well, slapped the ball back into play, and turned a certain four into just two runs.
Despite these moments, England still dropped four chances in the series. Three of those came in the same over of the final match. In the 11th over, Charlie Dean was bowling and RMAU Grimmond survived three times in a row. Sciver-Brunt, Dean herself, and wicketkeeper Amy Jones all dropped catches. In the first game, Dean also missed a catch off Hayley Matthews when she was on 73 (51). Matthews went on to score an unbeaten century.
There were also signs of better decision-making. In the first match, Sciver-Brunt made a smart call during Grimmond’s run-out. Instead of throwing to the bowler’s end, she threw to the keeper’s end. Grimmond, on debut, was caught out of her crease when Jones took off the bails.
Some save from Danni Wyatt-Hodge on the boundary 👏 pic.twitter.com/5Np5udCxkK
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 26, 2025
At the post-match presentation, Sciver-Brunt spoke about the fielding, saying: “We want to be fielding perfectly every time. I guess, from the first two games, we fielded brilliantly, and to put in the same performance every time—to be that perfect score on the fielding sheet—can be difficult at times. Obviously, we had what was four in four balls with chances. But yeah, we can’t really put that down to anything, and I guess we want to be better than that.”
So, there were clear signs of improvement in the T20I series. But now, the focus turns to the three-match ODI series, starting on 30 May. With the ODI World Cup ahead, as Sciver-Brunt said, England will aim to keep improving their fielding with the goal of “fielding perfectly every time.”
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