Following a chastening Ashes defeat by Australia over the winter, England’s comfortable series wins over the West Indies were exactly what was needed to bring back some positivity back at the start of a new regime.
All the talk from England was that tougher challenges would come. Well, the first of them has just arrived.
A misfield from Ecclestone to allow a single off the first ball of the match set the tone for a sub-par fielding effort in which they gave Mandhana a costly early let off and Danni Wyatt-Hodge dropped a fairly straightforward at deep mid-wicket to give Deol a life on 26.
With India taking the game to England, the hosts offered little by way of response.
The bowlers, both seam and spin, were leaking runs while offering next to no wicket-taking threat. A less than ideal combination.
Across the innings, only 18 balls bowled by England would have hit the stumps – that’s just 14.5% – and just four of those deliveries came from the seamers.
There is some mitigation in the fact they attempted to bowl wide yorkers for a time in the second part of India’s innings but given former England seamer Katherine Sciver-Brunt told BBC Test Match Special that she’d expect between 60 and 70% of balls to be hitting the stumps in a T20, 14.5% is remarkably low.
Attempting the second-highest chase in women’s T20I history was always going to be a challenge but it is the manner of England’s collapse that may concern them.
Eight of the 10 wickets fell to spin. An all too familiar failing for this side.
Since the start of 2023, England’s batters average 18.4 against spin in T20Is against India and Australia, only Pakistan (13.2) and Bangladesh (11.6) average less.
With a 50-over World Cup in India and Sri Lanka to come this autumn, it is a problem that needs to be addressed with some urgency.
The nature of T20 cricket means that England could quite easily hit back with an equally convincing win in the second T20.
But, with a stated aim to challenge Australia and become the best team in the world, Edwards and co will know that such goals will not be achieved overnight – this result was proof of that.
