It always begins with good intentions.
Shiny new blazers, pin-neat uniforms, homework done on time and handed in with a smile. But, a few weeks later and a button has fallen off your shirt, the homework is roughly scrawled on the bus in the morning and, suddenly, the answers in the back of the book don’t match those at the end of your frantic workings.
Sometimes, it’s a brief dip, solved by a weekend break and a spare button found at the bottom of the washing basket. But sometimes, it’s the start of a slide into familiar stagnation. For England, they’ll be hoping their performance in the first T20I against India was the former, a jarring lapse quickly shaken off rather than a reversion to the mean.
The match in Nottingham was a bingo card of every failing England have been accused of over the past few years. Their fielding was appalling from ball one when Sophie Ecclestone let through a single easily pushed to her at mid off. Dropped catches duly followed, Alice Capsey so unaware of where Smriti Mandhana had hit the ball that it almost came down on top of her head. Danni Wyatt-Hodge was also guilty, dropping a clanger in the deep when India were scoring at well over 10 an over. It wasn’t only the drops, with several balls that should have been stopped bouncing over the ropes as well.
Smriti Mandhana, take a bow!
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 28, 2025
She becomes the first Indian woman, and fifth overall, to score a century in each international format 💯#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/cmiapbZ5nL
Dropped catches happen. Misfields happen. But there are two points as to why that dire fielding performance was so noteworthy.
Charlotte Edwards has been vocal about improving England’s fielding standards from her first day as head coach. Minimum fielding standards will be brought in after the World Cup later this year, and how well players field now seems to be an important selection criteria. Having made those statements, it’s harder to then be seen to do nothing after such a bad fielding performance, and it’s a marker that whatever work has been done so far isn’t enough.
Equally important is the perception it gives of the side. The view from the winter was that England players were too comfortable. They weren’t challenged for their places and subsequently fell short of the standards international cricketers should be held to. Kate Cross admitted after the Ashes loss that England had probably “lost a few fans” during that campaign, and poor fielding performances only worsened the view of a team trying to rehabilitate their image.
Beyond the fielding, there was a familiar feeling of powerlessness when the wheels loosen. When Mandhana teed off, playing one of the great T20I innings, England were paralysed in the face of her onslaught. Batters are allowed to play well, especially on hard pitches and outfields baked in sun over the previous weeks. But the inaction in trying to counter Mandhana, and later on Harleen Deol, was staggering. Lauren Bell was England’s most effective bowler early in the innings, conceding 11 off her first two overs. She was kept out of the attack by Nat Sciver-Brunt from the end of the sixth over to the start of the 16th, when Mandhana was on 90 and Deol 43 off 22. England like to use Bell at the death, but in a situation where the opposition are scoring at 10.5 an over and all three spinners have gone for runs, using her to try and break up the flow of runs or take a wicket earlier in the innings should have been a no-brainer.
That lack of flexibility is a warning sign for Sciver-Brunt’s leadership. Twice when she’s been in charge over the last eight months, the wheels have come off in the field and she’s been unable to calm the situation or counter it by changing her plans. On the first occasion, England were knocked out of the T20 World Cup. While the second won’t be as consequential, how to respond in those situations will be the biggest challenge of her early captaincy, with the World Cup now less than four months away.
We could also dive into England’s failings against spin later in the game. The ball Wyatt-Hodge edged to slip off Deepti Sharma sealed her third T20I duck in her last three innings, with all of her four dismissals this summer being enacted by finger-spinners. There was also Tammy Beaumont bowled on the charge, Amy Jones not even attempting to ground her bat after a fumble from the keeper briefly threatened the routine stumping, and Capsey out slogging again. But perhaps the most worrying factor in the defeat was, yet again, when the pressure – in this case calibre of opposition and game situation – was ramped up, England immediately fell to pieces.
All of these failings are familiar, and that makes them harder to solve. Against the West Indies, it was felt England had made some progress. New faces came into the side and succeeded, the changes made to the batting order seemed logical and again succeeded. Runs, wickets and most importantly, winning again, added up to that feel-good atmosphere. All of those were caveated with the quality of the opposition, but such was England’s dominance and the ‘fresh’ feel around the group, that those successes felt genuine.
One bad game against India doesn’t necessarily indicate that they weren’t. But it does indicate just the scale of the job Edwards has been asked to do. Before she started the role, Edwards had an aura of magic. Every side she’d coached had won under her, she was the only candidate for a job it felt like the ECB would have begged her to do. She’s been there, done it all and got the t-shirt, and has a natural firmness it felt like the side needed. But England’s challenges run deep, beyond personnel and skills. Ultimately, the work done off the field can only go so far, and when it unravels on the field, head coaches are largely powerless.
What’s important for England now is how they shake off that loss. A blip is acceptable, and no one expects everything to be fixed in a couple of short months during a busy summer. How they respond, with four T20Is remaining against India before the ODI series, is the true measure of the progress they’ve made so far in their new era.
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