Despite England’s batting problems, which their head coach has been working to address, it’s a good place to be. In Indore, Edwards stated, “Seriously, in a tournament like this, you have to forget about things quite quickly,” the night before the game match versus India.
England is undefeated at the 2025 Women’s World Cup, having won three of their last four games. And on Sunday, bruised from losses to Australia and South Africa, they will play an underdog India.
After rain stopped play in Colombo, England, who were 78 for 7 in their most recent match against Pakistan, were fortunate to split the points. “We’ve obviously reviewed that last game, but we are not dwelling on that,” Edwards explained. “We are concentrating on India, and we are aware of how difficult their domestic conditions will be since the summer.
It’s thrilling to be here tomorrow in front of a sizable crowd that will undoubtedly be cheering for India. In our group, there’s a genuine feeling of exhilaration and a lack of reflection on the past.
England’s weakness to swing bowling is one of their batsmanship issues. That was taken advantage of in Guwahati by Bangladesh’s Marufa Akter, who dismissed Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont and nearly dismissed Heather Knight, who ended up winning the match. This week, Diana Baig and Fatima Sana of Pakistan caused the initial damage at the Premadasa stadium, starting a small trend.
At this World Cup, fast bowlers have hit a tournament-high 22.7 strike rate against England.
“I am not concerned,” Eddie Edwards declared. There are times when things don’t go so well for you. I’m not worried, but I’m probably upset that we didn’t adjust more quickly. When it comes to tournament cricket, you have to move on fast. In the first game, South Africa was bowled out for 70 [69], but they have subsequently played magnificently.
Edwards: “I wanted Ecclestone to have fun playing cricket once more.”
Of the 30 wickets taken thus far, 24 have come from England’s spinners, with left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone leading the charge with nine at an average of 6.66. Edwards said England was simply relieved she was playing again after her haul featured stats of 4 for 17 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Ecclestone had taken a break from playing to focus on her health throughout the English summer. Following the off-field turmoil that arose during the most recent Women’s Ashes, she had also contemplated giving up cricket.
“We’re all incredibly proud of Sophie, she obviously had a tough winter and worked through some issues,” Edwards commented. Our top priority was to get Sophie back to enjoying cricket. It is quite clear that she is once again loving cricket. It was a terrific stint against Sri Lanka, and she’s probably bowling as well as I’ve ever seen her. I’m sure she’s excited to play tomorrow. She is over her illness, which prevented her from playing for Pakistan, and is eager to play for England once more.
During this World Cup, India has suffered the highest wicket losses to left-arm spin. Ecclestone and Linsey Smith, two masters of the art, will confront them on Sunday. Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana have been dismissed by Ecclestone seven times in ODIs between them.
“Left-arm spin has been quite prolific in women’s cricket over the last few years, probably more in the T20 format,” said Edwards. Since this competition is taking place in India, we chose two left-arm spinners since I felt they would be quite successful. We have two of the best in the world, and Sophie Ecclestone is unquestionably the best. I’m happy we have both of them because it’s just one of those bowling techniques that has been incredibly successful.
“Any advantage you can gain over an opponent, you’ll investigate.” Since we have two left-arm spinners, it’s fantastic that we can use them, and we are aware that there is a weakness there.”
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