England to prepare for home T20 World Cup by taking a 10 month break from playing T20 cricket

England prepare to play India in the final T20 of their five-match series tonight knowing that their next T20 fixture will be in May 2026, just 4 weeks before the ICC T20 World Cup tournament begins. It would be fair to say that Charlotte Edwards and her coaching staff have a fair amount of work to do before 12^th June 2026 if England can emerge as contenders in their own home World Cup.

This series has exposed weaknesses throughout England’s side, in a similar way to the Ashes series did in January.

1. The top and middle-order batting is fragile and prone to panic-induced collapses. 

This can be summarised in three ways: poor shot selection, poor shot execution and a batter’s failure to adapt her game to the conditions of the day. During this series England’s collapses looked like this: 

First T20i: 58/2 to 113 all out (eight wickets lost for 55 runs in 9 overs)

Second T20i: Top 3 batters dismissed for 17 after 3.3 overs

Third T20i: 137/0 to 168/9 (nine wickets lost for 31 runs in 4 overs)

Fourth T20i: 68/2 to 101/7 (five wickets lost for 33 runs in 6.4 overs)

Here’s an example. In the fourth match, three England batters were dismissed caught at long on in virtually identical fashion: Wyatt-Hodge, Beaumont and Scholfield. For Wyatt-Hodge it was the right shot, but it was badly executed, for Beaumont and Scholfield, it was simply the wrong shot to play – a hit a six or get out shot. The cricket equivalent of Russian roulette.

2. The batters struggle against spin. 

India’s spinners have taken 22 wickets in the first 4 matches. England have really struggled when the pace has been taken off the ball, mistiming shots and being put under pressure by dot balls.

3. The fielding, particularly the catching, is inadequate and dropping the ball spreads like a contagion within the team. 

England have dropped catches in all four games of this series, but it was actually the game they won at the Oval which was the worst, with six chances going down in total. The series started with a mis-field from Ecclestone, giving India their first run of the series from the first ball. This has set the tone for the whole series.

4. Leadership within the team is weak. 

Nat Sciver-Brunt is unconvincing as a captain and a leader. When she went off injured in the game at the Oval, the vice-captain, Sophia Dunkley, seemed unable or unwilling to take charge, so by default it was Sophie Ecclestone who captained in the void that was left. As a result, Tammy Beaumont had to be made temporary captain for the remaining games of the series. She is a good leader, a great communicator and is only playing because Heather Knight is injured. This leaves us with the tantalising question of who would be captaining if Knight were fit and therefore Beaumont was not playing?

5. The spin bowlers have been out-performed by unheralded Indian spinners like Shree Charani and Radha Yadav. 

Whilst India’s spinners have taken 22 wickets, England’s spinners have taken 4. India’s spinners have bowled 50 overs, England’s have bowled 33. Ecclestone started the series looking rusty and unconvincing, but has grown as the series has gone on. Linsey Smith and Alice Capsey have been ineffective. It raises the question of whether Sarah Glenn would have been a better option.

6. The pace bowlers can be inconsistent – Filer and Wong can be brilliant for one over then very expensive the next. 

To be fair on Issy Wong, this has been a good series for her overall. Her variations have at times been excellent. She is never going to offer metronomic accuracy, but she can take wickets with her deceptive slower balls and her sheer unpredictability. Filer bowled a great over at the Oval which contributed to England’s win there. But to merit her place, she really needs to be offering up spells like that in every game and not once per series. Em Arlott offers something more accurate, but less penetrative in her bowling and bats better than Filer, but doesn’t really offer a radically better solution. However, on the positive side, Lauren Bell’s bowling has been consistently good throughout (although her fielding hasn’t been great)…

7. The tail is too long. 

England’s number 7, 8 and 9 batters are not capable of rescuing them when they need to (which is frequently). Numbers 10 & 11 are both real number 11s.

This gets to the real centre of England’s problem: Nat Sciver-Brunt is not playing, and when she is playing, she’s not bowling. Without NSB bowling 4 overs and anchoring the batting, England are greatly diminished. And there really is no alternative as an all-round option to balance the team. 

I sense Lottie hoped that Em Arlott could in part fill this void. But when she has batted at number 7, it seemed at least one place too high. Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson have both filled this role in the last two years, but have both struggled with injury and are currently some way away from fulfilling the all-rounder role for England. Alice Davidson-Richards is probably the best domestic all-rounder, but her bowling is just not quite up to the standard required, Mady Villiers is another decent domestic all-rounder who will have chance to stake a claim by performing well in the WBBL. Alice Capsey is probably still the best fit as a batter who can turn her arm over rather than a genuine all-rounder. This would be less of an issue if the top six batters could manage to bat for 20 overs between themselves, but that seems to rarely happen. 

England really need a player a bit like Deepti Sharma, and it seems to me that if Ecclestone can do some serious work on her batting, she could actually be the solution for England. Looking round the counties could it be Charis Pavley who also could slot into this bowling all-rounder role in the future?

England could also do with a batting all-rounder a bit like Hayley Matthews or Chamari Athapaththu. Capsey is currently in this role, but tends to bowl only one or two overs, if any overs at all. Could it be for Grace Scrivens to fill this vacuum as someone who is a very good batter who can bowl four decent overs?

Whatever she decides to do with personnel, with a T20 World Cup round the corner, Edwards needs to use the empty months between the end of the ODI World Cup on 2^nd November 2025 and England’s tri series against New Zealand and India in May 2026 very well indeed if this team are going to lift the trophy.