England’s World Cup ends in tears – what now for Knight and Lewis?

The dream of England lifting the 2024 T20 World Cup is over. Their abject defeat to the West Indies in Dubai has left them humiliated and widely ridiculed.

At this moment, it feels as if the whole “product” of women’s cricket has been left tainted and devalued by England’s under-performance in those few overs. In batting, bowling, fielding, tactics and leadership, they fell short. For us, the supporters of the women’s game, who want to see a successful England team at the forefront of the game’s growth, who want to see an inspiring group bringing this great game to a whole new audience, and who know how wonderful these England players can be, it leaves us shaking our heads in bewilderment. And it leaves England, alongside Sri Lanka and India, as the big losers of this World Cup.

The bizarre thing really is that England on the whole were having a good tournament. They beat South Africa, a win which seemed to highlight the progress that had been made since losing to the same opponents 18 months ago in the semi-final. Their win against Scotland was professional and convincing. Their opening game against Bangladesh was less of a convincing performance, but they got the job done whilst not being at their best, which is always a good thing to be able to do. The problem occurred when pressure was applied. At that point England imploded. Despite the consistent wins in bilateral series over the last two years, including series wins against Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and India, when put in a must-win game, at a World Cup, England capitulated.

England have some previous form in this regard. The Commonwealth Games semi-final against India and, perhaps more notably, the Bronze medal match against New Zealand was an awful capitulation, full of petulance and misplaced entitlement. On those occasions, Heather Knight was missing. It was really obvious to everyone watching at that moment back in 2022 that Nat Sciver-Brunt was not the person to step into the captaincy. I say this not as a criticism. She is a brilliant person and a wonderful cricketer, England’s most skilled batter by some way. But captaincy requires a different set of skills, and international captaincy even more so. NSB does not have those skills. To expect her to do this role is actually unfair on her. For her to step into the role with 10 minutes’ notice, having batted for most of England’s innings and having carried them to a defendable total seemed like an accident waiting to happen.

Not the end, but the beginning of the end

Heather Knight has led England for the last eight years. It has felt like a golden age. Beginning with the 50 over World Cup, which England won at Lord’s in July 2017, the women’s game in England has grown exponentially and is flourishing like never before. At a professional level, there are now ten times as many players as there were in 2016. The Hundred competition has seen women’s cricket played at major test venues before large, enthusiastic and invested crowds from a wide demographic. At a grass roots level, participation levels for women and girls are higher than ever. Throughout this time, Heather Knight has been the leader, the spokesperson, the calm presence in a turbulent sea of change. She has understood the significance of women’s sport in the wider world, how it really matters for women to be represented on an equal footing with men in an arena where men have had unquestioned dominance for centuries. 

Up until now, there really hasn’t been a succession plan. Some have even proposed that Knight herself keeps it that way, bearing in mind that, having been identified as a possible future captain and given the vice captaincy in 2014, she came to the top job much earlier than many expected and in something of a conspiratorial fashion after the unceremonious, unsentimental and some would say callous ditching of Charlotte Edwards in 2016 following an unsuccessful T20 World Cup campaign (by unsuccessful, I mean England won all 4 group games and lost to Australia by 5 runs in the semi-final and Edwards herself scored over 200 runs in five games).

It is now Knight who is the unsuccessful captain, not just in this competition, but also in the previous four global tournaments since she lifted the trophy at Lord’s. She has also had four unsuccessful attempts to regain the Ashes during that time. So, change is in the air – but I would suggest that it is in nobody’s interest for this to be the end for Heather Knight. It merely needs to be the beginning of the end.

Knight needs to retire from one format of the game. I would suggest that ODIs would be the best format for her to step down from. When England go to South Africa next month (assuming Knight is fit), there needs to be another captain for the ODI team. 

The candidates are clear. Of the older generation, Kate Cross has shown herself to be an excellent leader and great ambassador when she led England on their tour of Ireland recently. Tammy Beaumont is another obvious contender. She led Welsh Fire to the Hundred final. Both are experienced, both are tactically astute. However, both are in the twilight years of their career. They are not long-term replacements, but neither was Alyssa Healy (age 34) who replaced Meg Lanning (age 32) as Australia captain 12 months ago.

Of the younger generation, things are not so clear. Sophie Ecclestone had a disastrous year captaining Manchester Originals in 2024: the team performed badly and her bowling was ineffective. Alice Capsey has had no captaincy experience, but would be an interesting one to invest in for the long term. The sense with Capsey is that on a personal level, everything has happened a bit too quickly for her, and she needs a bit more time to understand herself better before taking on additional responsibility. She played no regional cricket at all this year, which I would see as not a good thing for someone who aspires to take on such an important leadership role. Lauren Bell and Maia Bouchier show great promise as players, but it is difficult to imagine either in a captaincy role.

Looking outside the England contracted group, three players stand out as strong leaders with proven track records: Georgia Adams (recently capped in the Ireland series), Hollie Armitage (also recently capped) and the uncapped former under 19 captain Grace Scrivens. Of these it is Scrivens who really excites close followers of the women’s game. Her track record after taking the captaincy of Sunrisers in September 2023 at the age of 19 has been incredible, leading them to this year’s Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. It would be a radical choice to drop in an inexperienced and uncapped player into a leadership position, but surely now is the time to make change. 

England’s next move is to start planning for a successful T20 World Cup in 2026 and a successful Ashes campaign in 2027. I would suggest that the home World Cup in 2026 would be a fitting point at which to say goodbye to Heather Knight and that Grace Scrivens is the person to lead a victorious Ashes campaign in 2027. All the games that England play between now and then need to be focussed on those goals. I would suggest that England are not going to win the Ashes this Winter and are not going to win the ODI World Cup in India in 12 months’ time. These need to be allowed to be staging posts on the way to a bigger goal rather than must-win tournaments.

Stick or Twist with the coach?

Jon Lewis has done a decent job in the last two years. It feels like he has grown into the role. The development of players like Lauren Filer and Maia Bouchier has come under his watch. It feels like the players enjoy being part of his team (although I am aware that appearances can sometimes be deceptive). It would seem harsh to ditch him now. Yet there needs to be some sort of response to the disappointment of this World Cup. 

A counter argument would be that even though the development of Filer has been great, one should also think of the decline of Issy Wong and (to a lesser degree) Lauren Bell, both of whose bowling has been adversely affected by the changes they have been told to implement by the England coaching team. When interviewed during the Hundred, Charlotte Edwards seemed mystified as to why England were trying to alter Bell’s action and saw it as stopping her doing what she naturally does so well – swing the ball in. And it is Charlotte Edwards of course, who would be the number one front runner to be England coach whenever Jon Lewis moves on. Imagine the irony if this did happen and her first decision had to be about the captaincy…