October 30, 2021. That day in Dubai, England thrashed Australia by eight wickets as they waltzed through the pool stages of the Men’s T20 World Cup, with a winter of promise lying ahead.
Australia ended up winning that tournament — and have won everything since, too: men’s T20 World Cup, men’s Ashes, women’s Ashes, women’s ODI World Cup. In that time, in 12 cross-format attempts, England’s men and women have failed to win a single match against them.
Even England’s second string have suffered. England Lions lost a first-class match in Brisbane to Australia A, and, touring for the first time, England Women’s A lost five of their six matches against their Australian counterparts, with the other washed out.
Australia are English cricket’s yardstick, so this is clearly a winter that will concern the ECB.
On the men’s side, we are already more than two months and three Tests into the quadrennial tailspin of sackings, reviews and overhauls that follows an Ashes tour Down Under. This was a particularly damaging tour, with an England team that never looked likely to win under-performing even more than expected. Australia, meanwhile, plucked players from their domestic competition with immediate success.
The picture on the women’s side is a little more complicated. The last of all the defeats, by 71 runs in yesterday’s World Cup Final, does not rank among the most surprising, or indeed concerning, of the string of losses. It capped a winter that has largely met expectations: Ashes defeat, a World Cup Final. Those were the results, although the journey to reach them was more of a roller-coaster.
At the end of a brutal, gruelling tour, and having had a dreadful start to the tournament, England had done well to get to the final, to prove that they are the best of the rest behind an extraordinary Australia side. This summer, Australia will look to add the Commonwealth Games trophy to a bulging cabinet that already includes every other honour.
They went unbeaten through this tournament. In the final, England were outclassed, all except Nat Sciver, who played one of the great knocks in defeat, making 148 not out. Even she dropped a costly catch, mind.
The ECB were slower to recognise the value of a more professional wider women’s game than Cricket Australia, who are reaping the benefits now.
Australia bat and bowl better, but their fielding and general athleticism is superior, too. They also have more of a winning mentality; it is notable that some fine English players with long futures ahead of them — take Amy Jones and Sophie Ecclestone — have considerably worse records against Australia than their overall numbers.
Catching up is the only way, because Australia will not tail off. The backbone of their awesome batting — Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry — might all be in their early thirties now, but the Women’s Big Bash League is producing talent, fast. The next generation is likely to be even more potent.
For England, macro changes such as The Hundred, the A programme and more professional contracts will certainly help. But micro adjustments to the national team are required, too.
This is largely the same group that won the World Cup five years ago, and Heather Knight has been captain for six. It is not time for all of them to go, but all three seam bowlers in England’s side are in their thirties, and so are both their openers (as well as Lauren Winfield-Hill, who started the tournament there). There are exciting youngsters in the side and waiting in the wider squad.
There is no need for the immediate string of sackings, the root-and-branch reform or the wild gnashing of teeth that we have seen on the men’s side. Only a considered, calculated response can help catch the Aussies — and even that will take time.
