From rock bottom to a World Cup final

To a certain degree, it's difficult to tell the story of this English team without telling the story of that Ashes. The January of 2025 when they couldn't buy themselves a win. A time when they couldn't look any further down.

After a group-stage exit in the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Australian tour exposed their weaknesses repeatedly. Criticism came flying, the captain stepped down and the coach was asked to step away. As the rest of the teams marched up, England lost their place of prominence in the women's game.

For this English side now one step away from becoming world champions, the start point was when they crashed, chose to reboot their cricket, and sat on a rebuilding process for over a year. The most obvious testimony is their place in the 2026 T20 World Cup final. Now they stand in the way of Australia's attempt to seize that title.

But Natalie Sciver-Brunt, who has helmed this revival, has nothing to seek from that Australian summer – not even revenge.

"Our team has come quite a long way since that Ashes tour," Sciver-Brunt said a day ahead of the final. "Everyone knows what it's about – we're playing in a World Cup final at home at Lord's. There's not really been any talk about the Ashes and trying to prove people wrong. We've done a lot of hard work since that tour to show where we are as a group."

England have reached the final winning each of their games. While senior players have stepped up – with Danni Wyatt, Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight being the highest scorers – the captain also praised the way younger players have chipped in.

"We've had some great performances from Freya and Dani with the bat, taking the game on in the last five, six overs. And Kemp bowling really well. The confidence the bowling group has shown to keep changing their pace when the pressure's on has been really special."

Sciver-Brunt is so focused on the task that she is yet to wrap her head around reaching the final, a feat England last achieved eight years ago.

"Katherine said to me after the game the other night – it's actually bigger than you think it is. We've been living in our bubble as a team. I think once we finish and reflect, we can hopefully see how far we've come and what it's meant to people watching."

England may not have won a World Cup since lifting the 50-over trophy in 2017, but Sciver-Brunt has plenty of experience to lean on from captains who have lifted the trophy at Lord's – head coach Charlotte Edwards in 2009 and Heather Knight in 2017. The challenge, she says, is not getting carried away.

"It's two teams that have played each other a lot. When it comes down to it, it's about who can deliver their skills better on the day. The message has been to enjoy yourself and stick to the skills we've been working on.

"It's just about staying in the moment and knowing we have Plan B, C, D to turn to if we need to."

However, the English captain is under 'no illusion' that Australia will make the final hurdle easy.

"Every time we come up against Australia, it's going to be a tough battle. Both teams have players with massive experience and youngsters who are massively talented. We know lots of their players have experience of playing in knockout games and finals.

"We're under no illusion that it's going to be a really tough game – finals like that don't come around that often."

For England, the challenge now begins and ends at Lord's on July 5.