Nottingham: Former captain Nasser Hussain has revealed that the talk from England camp ahead of the Women’s Ashes starting from Wednesday at Trent Bridge, has been of firm belief in beating Australia on its home turf.
Australia have held the Women’s Ashes since 2015, winning three out of the last four series. In absence of Meg Lanning, the Alyssa Healy-captained side comes into the multi-format series in England on the back of winning ODI and T20 World Cups as well as a gold medal in Commonwealth Games, which means all odds are stacked against England.
“If you go in thinking ‘we can’t beat them’, then you’re beaten already. I like some of the chatter coming out of the England camp. We did a thing for the ICC with (England Women’s captain) Heather Knight and she was quite bullish with the fact that we believe we can beat them’.”
If your captain doesn’t have that attitude, then you’re at a bad starting point. The talk from the England camp is we firmly believe that they are beatable, and that’s the only way,” Hussain told ICC.
The multi-format women’s Ashes series will consist of one Test match (worth four points), three ODIs, and three T20Is (each worth two points).
Notably, England have missed chances of winning titles in recent years. They were beaten by Australia in the 2022 ODI World Cup, before losing to India and New Zealand to miss out on a podium finish in the Commonwealth Games at home. In the 2023 T20 World Cup, England suffered a heart-breaking defeat to hosts South Africa in the semi-final.
Hussain hopes that England’s women’s team will put Australia under pressure.
“I played in an England side that played against Australia. It was that sort of mindset of, crikey Shane Warne again, Glenn McGrath again, can we beat him?’ In 2005, Michael Vaughan’s Ashes side went, yeah, we can beat him’ and did that.
That would be my recommendation to Heather and her team; have real belief that you can beat this Australian side, because if you put them under pressure any side can crumble. But it’s putting them under pressure that’s important,” former England captain said.
With over 11,000 tickets already sold for the Women’s Ashes Test, it means that England and Australia will play in front of a record-breaking crowd at Trent Bridge. Wednesday’s Test match will be England Women’s first game over five days in the longer format on home soil, and their first visit to Trent Bridge since 2000.
IANS
