Nasser Hussain urges England women’s team to keep evolving in pursuit of Australia

England showed their class by winning both the ODI and T20I components of the multi-format Ashes on home soil last month and defeat in the one-off Test in June meant the topsy-turvy series ended tied at eight points apiece as Australia retained the trophy for a fifth straight series.There were plenty of positive signs for Heather Knight’s side and Hussain has challenged England to build on that performance and continue to improve ahead of the next Ashes series in Australia at the start of 2025.

“England has got some good young players coming through, although actually in our Ashes series, it was the senior players like Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Kate Cross and Danni Wyatt that absolutely put in performances,” Hussain said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.

“You would be a fool to say, ‘Oh, that’s it. Australia are coming back to the pack’. I don’t think they are doing that. Other nations have to keep playing catch-up cricket with the Australian women’s team as they’re one of the greatest sporting teams of all time,” he added.

Sciver-Brunt was named England’s Player of the Series against Australia, while star spinner Sophie Ecclestone claimed 10 wickets during the one-off Test and proved a constant threat for the opposition batters throughout the white-ball matches.

The pair dominate the current ICC Women’s Player Rankings, with Sciver-Brunt holding the premier spot for both ODI batters and all-rounders and Ecclestone leading the way as the No.1 bowler in ODI and T20I cricket.

The 55-year-old believes Sciver-Brunt continues to be underrated somewhat as a player and thinks Ecclestone is still on the improve and only going to get better.

“Nat Sciver-Brunt is just a high-class player, a high-class individual and, in big moments, even in losing big moments against Australia at the 50-over World Cup and 20-over World Cup in the final, she is smashing it everywhere.

She never knows when to give up. She has long levers. She has great awareness of the field and where to hit some of her slog sweeps over wide mid-wicket. A great all-rounder and an outstanding cricketer,” Hussain said.

“And Sophie Ecclestone has been there for England…she’s only still young. She is very accurate. Never bowls bad deliveries. In red-ball cricket, she can go past the outside edge.

In white-ball cricket, often people play for the turn. But a little bit like Rashid Khan or something, it’s actually stump-to-stump LBW and bowled in white-ball cricket. She brings in the stumps in white-ball cricket and she can bat as well and she is very good in the field.

She took some good catches, some very fine catches in that Ashes series. So she’s developing a little bit like Nat Sciver-Brunt into a genuine all-rounder,” she added.

The former captain nominated Alice Capsey, Sophia Dunkley and Lauren Filer as the next group of stars that can help England continue their upward trend and believes the exposure these players receive from playing in domestic competitions around the world will help accelerate the process.

“We’ve got The Hundred…here in England and it’s going to be so important for their growth and their development to keep improving. Hopefully some of them, hopefully the WPL (Women’s Premier League in India) will keep picking up some young English players to play in different conditions as well,” Hussain noted.

“I think English women’s cricket is in a very healthy place because of The Hundred. Because they’re getting that exposure to playing against some of the best players in the world. (India pair) Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur are over (in England) to play.

When you’re playing against the best all the time, you learn from them and you’re in the same dressing room as them, that’s what’s really good about these franchise tournaments, to get in the same dressing room and see how they operate and practice. I think that’d be the great benefit of franchise tournaments for some of our young women cricketers,” she added.