England women’s cricket: Younger players making us a ‘real force’, says head coach Jon Lewis – BBC Sport

England have won all eight of their completed matches against New Zealand and Pakistan this summer, following on from T20 and ODI series wins while touring the former in March and April.

Those series have seen Bell grow into England’s frontline seamer and Bouchier secure a spot at the top of order in both white-ball formats.

All-rounder Alice Capsey, 19, leg-spinner Sarah Glenn, 24, and off-spinner Charlie Dean, 23, have all been regulars too.

England called up seamer Ryana MacDonald-Gay, 20, for the first time in this series as cover, while 18-year-old seamer Mahika Gaur has been around the squad as she recovers from injury.

“We are having some really difficult decisions about what our best XI is,” added Lewis.

“One of the real strengths of this group is that they are really keen to help each other grow.

“The more experienced girls are really open with their knowledge and the young players are curious about how to get better, and you combine that with a really solid coaching group and we have a nice environment to work in.”

England start a five-match T20 series against New Zealand in Southampton on Saturday.

Those matches are across a 12-day period – with the final game at Lord’s on 17 July live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer – as they look to ramp up their preparation for the T20 World Cup in October.

England last won the tournament in 2009 and have been knocked out in the semi-finals in the past two editions.

Both the 20-over and 50-over world titles are held by Australia, as are the Women’s Ashes and Commonwealth Games.

All-rounder Freya Kemp, 19, is also part of the T20 squad and England are hoping she can bowl in the series after recovering from a back stress fracture.

“We have a lot of really fine players and we are going to need them as the schedule is really busy and we have to manage the players through that, make sure they are not overplaying or underplaying,” said Lewis.

“We have to select a World Cup squad so to do that we need to decide the best 15 for the conditions we are going to play in.

“For Bangladesh in particular the team that plays the conditions the best will probably come out on top in the competition so we have to be really smart about the 15 we take, especially the four bench players.

“We need to think about getting a rhythm of playing, keeping winning, which is important – but can we do that while testing a few players at the same time?”