England ramp up their preparations for October's T20 Women's World Cup with a five-match series against New Zealand; the White Ferns were beaten 3-0 in the ODI leg of the tour; watch the first IT20 between England and New Zealand live on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday
Thursday 4 July 2024 10:18, UK
Jon Lewis is impressed with how the younger members of the England Women’s squad are coming to the fore as they build towards the T20 Women’s World Cup in October.
Heather Knight's side completed a 3-0 ODI series victory over New Zealand with a five-wicket win at Bristol's Seat Unique Stadium on Wednesday and now face the White Ferns in a five-match series in the shortest format.
The 50-over contests saw 25-year-old Maia Bouchier named as player of the series after racking up 186 runs across three games, while 23-year-old seamer Lauren Bell claimed an ODI career-best 5-37 in Bristol, and head coach Lewis is delighted with the emerging talent's development.
"We're getting real contributions from our younger players which is going to make us a real force, I think," Lewis told Sky Sports Cricket. "This group of young players are now really starting to step up and perform, which is good to see.
"One of the real strengths of the group is they're really keen to help each other and help each other grow.
"The more experienced girls in the team are really open with their knowledge and the young girls are really curious about how to get better."
Along with dominating with the bat and ball, one of the most pleasing aspects for England's leadership group was how the squad continued to raise their standards on the back of the home IT20 and ODI series wins over Pakistan in May.
Captain Heather Knight echoed Lewis' sentiments and was particularly impressed with how her side had evolved to deal with different situations against New Zealand from facing the White Ferns in their homeland back in March.
"It's a really great place to be," Knight said. There are so many players performing well, which is a really good sign for us.
"I think we're getting smarter... We've evolved a little bit as a team in terms of having that smartness and trying to dominate when we can.
"That's a really pleasing thing and we've got a huge T20 series leading into the World Cup later this year.
"We're going great at the moment, we've just got to keep it going and the challenge is to keep doing that for the rest of the summer."
Lewis believes a big reason the younger members of the squad are developing so well is the influence of the more experienced players like Nat Sciver-Brunt, who anchored England's reply in the third ODI with a magnificent unbeaten 76, Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont.
While the team embraced the former England men's bowler's approach of playing an aggressive brand of cricket when he first took charge in 2022, the 48-year-old has been pleased with the way the older heads have passed their knowledge on and how the newcomers have sought it out.
"When you get a group of people who are really together and working together, the information comes out naturally," Lewis said.
"We've talked a lot more about how we're going to do things, rather than when I first came in, I wanted the team to change the mindset they played with. I felt they did that quite quickly and easily and were able to go and be really aggressive.
"But we've seen when conditions aren't conducive to playing that way, we've had to adapt. I think the girls are starting to do that."
England go into the IT20 series against New Zealand with the focus very much on picking their 15-player squad for the World Cup in Bangladesh later this year, where the 2010 champions face the host nation, South Africa, West Indies and Scotland in Group B.
Lewis acknowledges they will face very different conditions in October to those of an English summer, but is relishing the challenge of trying to work out the best team for those spin-friendly wickets while at the same time aiming to continue the good home performances against the tourists.
"We've got to select a World Cup squad, so to that we need to work out which 15 are the best 15 for the conditions," Lewis said.
"We've got to be really smart about what our best 15, especially the four players who might not be in the starting XI.
"We need to think about getting a rhythm of play and keeping winning, but can we do that while we test out a few players at the same time?
"It's challenging, but good fun."
England's IT20 series against New Zealand gets underway on Saturday in Southampton at the Utilita Bowl. Watch live on Sky Sports Cricket from 2pm and stream contract-free with NOW.
