England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt admitted she was emotional after her side fell short in the World Cup final, missing the opportunity to lift the trophy on home soil. England entered the summit clash unbeaten throughout the tournament but were comprehensively outplayed by a dominant Australian team.
The hosts also had to cope with a demanding schedule, with only four full days separating the one-off Test from the World Cup final. Sciver-Brunt had missed a few matches earlier in the tournament because of a calf injury but said she had recovered well and was looking forward to contributing in the final. She expressed confidence in standing in the slip cordon and making an impact with the bat.
“The World Cup and everything that we managed to do still has mixed emotions because obviously the final result isn’t what we wanted, but I’m so proud of everybody and everything that we were able to do throughout the tournament,” Sciver-Brunt said as quoted by Cricinfo.
“I’m sure there’ll be time in the future for me to properly reflect on that, but at the moment that’s where I am for the group… the change of format is great timing. If it was going to be four days between a series, at least a change of format would be good. We’ve got some fresh faces into our squad that are bringing some great energy. I’m sure the disappointment won’t have left lots of people about what happened at the final, but we are looking forward to such a special week here at Lord’s,” she added.
Sciver-Brunt believes the best way to maximise opportunities for women’s Test cricket is by making it a regular part of multi-format series. She feels that integrating Test matches alongside ODIs and T20Is would provide players with greater exposure to the longest format.
“As England, we’re in a lucky place that we actually have played a lot more Test matches than some other countries. So I guess the answer is still, yes, we’d like to play more Test matches. I don’t know how many days and months of the year that we would need to do that, and the landscape of the scheduling that goes on, that’s way above my head. But, as players, whenever we get to play a Test match, it’s so special and we love taking part,” Sciver-Brunt concluded.
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