England should take positives from T20 World Cup final defeat to Australia but have big decisions to make before Ashes

Taking the positives is probably quite a hard thing to do when you have just been emphatically dispatched in your home T20 World Cup final by your oldest rivals.

But that is exactly what England should do.

Yes, it is now nine defeats in a row for the team against Australia - four T20s, as many ODIs and a solitary Test match.

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However, this does not feel like the 2025 Ashes, a series in which seven of those nine losses came and a side devoid of belief and prone to fielding errors folded to a 16-0 shellacking on points.

When the dust has settled, England will realise that.

Charlotte Edwards - a serial winner as a player and likewise as a coach in domestic and franchise cricket - has eliminated (most) of the fielding blunders and brought back the belief.

She also believes England have won back the fans.

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The next thing for the side to get back is the biggest trophies in the women's game because those have eluded them for too long.

Since a T20 and ODI World Cup double in 2009, when Edwards was captain, England have picked up only one global trophy - the 2017 50-over World Cup on home soil - despite being in six finals. They have not won an Ashes series in over a decade.

The reason for that, bar their own shortcomings, is Australia - the benchmark side in women's cricket and one of the benchmark sides across the entire sporting landscape.

The Southern Stars have recorded four comprehensive Ashes victories from the last six - the other two series ended in draws - while they are the ones to have inflicted each of those five white-ball final defeats England have suffered over the last 14 years.

You can pick holes in England's execution in this final - timid with the bat, loose with the ball - but Australia's seven-wicket stroll was largely down to the fact they are class apart.

No one possesses their array of bowling options and batting depth, albeit that the latter was not required at Lord's with top-order linchpins Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield breaking the back of the small chase with a riotous stand of 100 from just 67 deliveries.

Sunday's result would suggest the gap between Australia and England remains vast, although it has surely narrowed from the absolute chasm it was 18 months ago. Now a head coach addicted to winning will be plotting how to close it further and hopefully completely eradicate it in time for the 2027 home Ashes.

What now for England's veterans?

Edwards, who is adamant England's "time will come", has the tools at her disposal but also some big decisions to make, with question marks surrounding the futures of team veterans Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Heather Knight and Amy Jones due to age and/or form.

Wyatt-Hodge (35) had an excellent World Cup - leading run-scorer with her haul of 302 including a hundred and two fifties - while Knight (35) had a decent one. Without Knight's half-century and 133-run stand with Nat Sciver-Brunt in the semi-final against South Africa, England would probably have not made the Lord's showpiece.

Wicketkeeper-batter Jones was nowhere near as impactful. She began with a bang, hitting a 38-ball 53 against Sri Lanka, but then tailed off dramatically, managing only 42 runs in six innings with one double-figure score - a knock of 17 versus New Zealand.

Like Zak Crawley and James Vince did in their days with England men, Jones plays some sumptuous shots but often lacks meaningful contributions. Her glovework remains stellar, yet her place at the top of the order should be far from secure

Had England won this T20 World Cup, it may have been the perfect stage and venue for Wyatt-Hodge, Knight and Jones to bow out.

The fact they did not means the trio may now be eyeing the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka next February and the Ashes series later that year. But if they are not in her plans, Edwards will be ruthless enough to wield the axe. Just ask Kate Cross.

England have the nucleus of a fine side for years to come - batter Alice Capsey, all-rounders Freya Kemp and Danielle Gibson, spinners Sophie Ecclestone and Charlie Dean, seamer Lauren Bell.

Add in Bell's fellow pacers Issy Wong and Lauren Filer and teenage spin talent Tilly Corteen-Coleman - all part of the World Cup squad but unused - and perhaps chuck in batting talents such as Davina Perrin, Charis Paveley and Jodi Grewcock and a wider squad will form. Leg-spinner Sarah Glenn, still only 26, will hope to come again, too.

Sciver-Brunt hopes she has not played her last World Cup game

England will want captain Sciver-Brunt - still by far and away their most important player - to be there to stitch everything together, and the 33-year-old said after the Lord's defeat that she hoped it would not be her final World Cup appearance. There is a T20 World Cup in 2028 and a 50-over version the following year.

But if Ben Stokes' recent international retirement has taught us anything, it is that you can never be sure when a leader's time is up.

Having battled a calf injury and with young son Theo now in tow, who knows how long Sciver-Brunt has left? England should just enjoy her while they have her.

At least they know they have a natural successor as captain in Dean, whose composure and bowling changes stood out this summer while deputising in the role.

Whoever leads England into the Ashes, though, the aim will be a simple one: win.

You can only take the positives from defeat for so long.

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