Over-reliance on Sciver-Brunt, and continued fielding concerns, hamper preparations for main event in India
Valkerie Baynes23-Jul-2025Reliance on Sciver-Brunt leaves England exposedAfter England were thumped by 97 runs in the opening match of India’s visit, the first T20I at Trent Bridge, Sciver-Brunt wearily set out the truth after her innings of 66 limited a damaging scoreline: “One person can’t win a game, so it is all about partnerships with the bat and showing our physicality as well, making sure that we’re coming back for twos and keeping that energy high.”Her words rang true once more when she and Emma Lamb staged a third-wicket partnership of 162 to briefly give England hope of staging a record run-chase to win the final ODI and that series. Their next-best stand, between sixth-wicket pair Alice Davidson-Richards and Charlie Dean, was only worth 36, which was telling as India won by 13 runs, a margin which flattered the hosts. Even Sciver-Brunt and Lamb struggled to get going, chewing up 41 dot-balls in a powerplay of 22 for 2.When Sophia Dunkley and Davidson-Richards combined for a fifth-wicket century stand in the first ODI in Southampton followed by 71 between Sciver-Brunt and Lamb and 55 between Dunkley and Sophie Ecclestone, it still wasn’t enough to win, although their performance pushed India harder in their four-wicket win than their latest outing in Durham. If former captain Heather Knight recovers from injury in time for the World Cup, she promises to add reliability to the batting lineup.”The positives have been around our batting,” Edwards said. “I think how we’ve performed with the bat over this series has followed on from the West Indies series and India have been exceptional.”They’ve been really disciplined with the ball and it’s something we can really, really learn from. They’ve outfielded us, hence why they’re probably lifting the trophy today. We’ve certainly learned a lot about our squad over the last two, three weeks.”Sciver-Brunt and Emma Lamb produced a century stand that raised hopes of a record chase at Chester-le-Street•Getty ImagesFielding remains a worryIndia had amassed 318 for 5 in Durham amid some sloppy fielding and, with the exception of Sophie Ecclestone, an expensive bowling attack. England clearly missed Sciver-Brunt’s ability to provide an option while she recovers from a long-standing foot injury. She is still hoping to bowl at the World Cup, even if fulfilling a ten-overs-per-game allocation looks unrealistic.Sciver-Brunt also took a superb catch to remove centurion Harmanpreet Kaur, further highlighting her all-round importance. And while England only dropped one catch – Lauren Filer putting down a sharp chance off Richa Ghosh – their ground fielding cost valuable runs.Related
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Any errors in the field are bound to come under the spotlight after that abject showing at the T20 World Cup, and the marked gap between England and reigning World Cup champions Australia during the Ashes. Both captain and coach admit it remains the biggest area for improvement.Sciver-Brunt told the BBC: “We do work very hard on it. The engagement that we have and the effort in training is excellent, so translating that into a game is where we are missing a little bit. Some people maybe seem surprised that the ball is coming to them.”Edwards said fielding ability would come into consideration when picking her World Cup squad.”It is going to be a selection point, isn’t it?” she said. “That will certainly be an element, the athleticism piece and how people field, it’s not just going to be who’s the best batter. It will be, who’s the best fielder?”We are certainly doing a lot of work getting round to the counties, providing them with support around fitness and fielding. I think they come hand-in-hand in many ways. There is definitely talent ID being done as well.”England’s fielding has been under scrutiny since their dreadful display at the T20 World Cup in Dubai•ICC/Getty ImagesTime is tightWith ten weeks to go until the World Cup, England have played the last of their scheduled ODIs in preparation and it is still only July. With a training camp in Abu Dhabi and possible warm-up games to come, England’s lead-up closely mirrors that of the T20 World Cup a year ago, in which they didn’t make the knockouts. But Edwards believes she has time to make her side contenders.”We’re going there to win it, clearly,” Edwards said. “Getting to the final would be a real success for us. That’s a long way off but we are certainly going there to really compete and we believe we’ve got a team that can really compete.”We know up in our dressing room what we are doing and how we are progressing, and that’s the most important thing to me, if I’m honest, that we are really progressing, we’re really improving.”I think there is enough time. We’ll take a lot of the learnings from this series… we’ve got to keep learning really quickly. At times, I don’t think we’ve learned and done things as quickly as I’d like throughout this series. But the more we keep getting in these situations, the greater the learning is.”I feel really fortunate that we’ve had this series leading into a World Cup, where clearly India are going to be one of the favourites, because they’re playing some absolutely amazing cricket at the moment. We know we are not far off, which gives us a lot of confidence.”