With England's first home summer under Charlotte Edwards now complete, the size of the job on her hands remains as big as ever, writes Katya Witney.
In the hour after her side had slumped to their second series defeat in a row, Nat Sciver-Brunt once again had to deflect questions over team attitude and discipline. A consistent feature of press conferences over the last year this time had an added layer of contention, when England’s captain was asked about criticism from her wife, former teammate Katherine, on BBC Test Match Special.
“It’s hard for me to understand some people sometimes, and their attitudes, because to me it looks lazy and like they don’t care,” said Katherine. “It comes across to me as bad attitude and no discipline… I don’t think everyone is doing everything they possibly can. And the key to that question is why?”
Navigating a marriage when one person’s job is to constantly publicly evaluate your performance is not new territory for the couple. But, with Nat having taken on the captaincy, that dynamic might have changed slightly. Having been England’s best player for years, consistently churning out centuries and climbing up the list of all-time greats, on-air assessment of her performance was limited to Katherine’s nervous moments at the back of the box while egging her partner on through the nineties. Now, with England losing and the buck ultimately stopping at the captain’s door, every criticism is in some way a reflection on her wife’s performance.
Now-retired Katherine Sciver-Brunt expressed her disappointment with England’s on-field attitude following their T20I and ODI series defeats to India.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 23, 2025
However, England skipper - and also her wife - Nat Sciver-Brunt, was not in agreement with that criticism.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/sNIFfJVIeH
We all might find that dynamic difficult to navigate behind closed doors, but fronting up to the media about it is different. “I know everyone on that pitch is committed to doing the best they can for England,” said Nat in the post-match presser. Even Katherine acknowledged on commentary that her well-known tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve while playing for England is not a characteristic shared by her wife or the majority of the team.
Charlotte Edwards also chipped in with her own defence, adding: “I couldn’t be happier with where the squad is at at the moment, in terms of their attitude and effort and professionalism they’ve shown. That was something that I made very clear when I came into this role and I couldn’t be happier.”
Facing the written press was the last assignment of a busy end of summer schedule for Edwards. Before that interview, she’d had a bruising encounter with Sky Sports, with Charlie Dagnall and Nick Knight providing a particular grilling over England’s two most recent losses under Edwards.
“I knew the team were low in confidence after the Ashes, they’d had a lot of criticism and we’re working through that,” said Edwards when asked if she had a better understanding of the scale of the work to do after her first summer as head coach. “I will keep saying that we’re working hard and having lots of honest conversations about where we need to improve. Like many of these things, they don’t happen overnight, and the media think they’re just going to happen like this. We’re working hard, I’m seeing improvement and I don’t really care what anyone else thinks.”
It was an honest response from a notoriously blunt and straight-talking personality, which hinted at the growing frustrations England have had with the criticism they’ve copped. Earlier in the day, Sophie Ecclestone revealed she’d considered retiring from cricket after missing the series against the West Indies, drained from the media furore around the incident with Alex Hartley during the Ashes. “A lot of things were being said which wasn’t ideal for me and it affected me quite a lot to be honest,” Ecclestone told Sky Sports. “It took a lot out of me. There were a lot of words being thrown around about me that I thought were untrue and it wasn’t very nice to hear.”
Those three interviews paint a picture of a side navigating their relationship under a sharper microscope of scrutiny, while going through a challenging period on the pitch. Edwards’ No.1 job when she took the role on was to heal the team’s relationship with fans and media alike, a challenge which has proven tricky so far. The most important change which would improve that perception would be winning and, against the West Indies, the feel-good factor was back during the honeymoon period of the new era.
There were cracks, however, which India were able to exploit, opening up those freshly scabbed-over wounds. The fielding issues largely went under the radar against West Indies, with England still able to secure a 6-0 win despite dropped catches and a general scrappiness. Those problems were back in full force against India, the six dropped catches at The Oval a low point even in victory, while leaking runs with the ball and at times sloppy dismissals hurt them at other points. Equally, across the ODI series, Lauren Bell’s and Lauren Filer’s averages read 75.5 and 58 respectively, while Kranti Gaud by far eclipsed their combined wicket tally in one blistering spell in Durham.
The series scoreline paired with the resurfacing of those old perceptions hides the genuine positives England can take from their summer. The different approach Edwards has enforced in ODI cricket has led to increased totals in the face of adversity. Sophia Dunkley scrapped to get the side past 250 in Southampton while Emma Lamb stuck with Sciver-Brunt to get them past 300 in what wasn’t far from being a record chase in Durham. A successful reintegration for Ecclestone means England have by far and away their best bowler back in their ranks and performing.
Those progress points are significant markers to meet in a turnaround which is going to take time, and won’t be finished by the time the World Cup comes around in 10 weeks. The relentlessness of the international schedule, with a T20 World Cup on home soil now less than a year away, makes the scale of that challenge look even more enormous.
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