Hard work and a disco jacket – how England women's cricket team turned fielding woes around
Under coach Charlotte Edwards, England women's cricket team has significantly improved fitness and fielding by introducing minimum fitness standards and intensive training camps.
The improvement in fitness and fielding for the England women's cricket team has been a key priority for coach Charlotte Edwards since she took over after the Ashes defeat. She has calmly quietened talk of the issue.
In one of her previous roles at Southern Vipers, Edwards used an electric scooter to follow and observe players during fitness sessions. One of her first moves as England coach was introducing minimum fitness standards, including a 2km time trial, 30m sprints, explosive squat and vertical leap tests, and a maximum velocity assessment.
At the start of the season, England posted clips of gruelling training sessions on social media. Under Edwards, videos of boat parties from players' accounts are long gone. Fielding coach Nick Wilton has been given free rein to improve England's fielding. Without international fixtures this winter, he worked with players at training camps in Oman, Stellenbosch, and Pretoria, plus early-season gatherings at Millfield and Repton schools and Loughborough cricket centre.
"Progress happens with dedication over time and putting the work in," said player Dean. "All our careers we put in the work but especially the last year."
With players buying in, there is greater attention to detail. Dani Gibson, Freya Kemp, and Linsey Smith, three boundary fielders, practise high catches or sprints to retrieve and return the ball. Powerful Gibson, one of England's quickest players, has repeatedly denied batters second runs, notably early against South Africa.
Bowler Lauren Bell regularly attempts flying one-handed catches in training – opportunities that come from her short fine leg position. "Being that extra bit more detailed in what we are trying to do has put us in great stead," Dean said.
One match remains: Sunday's final against Australia. There would be no better opposition to reinforce their improvement. "Lottie coming in after the Ashes when we were pretty poor, it is obviously something we wanted to work on as a team and we've had commitment from everyone to do that," captain Nat Sciver-Brunt said. "The plan from Lottie in how we do that has been executed by Nick, who encourages us to push ourselves as far as we can in the field and not put a ceiling on anything we do."
The work – and the jacket – has got England this far. Can they continue under the most intense pressure?
