Women’s World Cup 2025: Charlotte Edwards says England targeting semi-final spot

Much of the criticism that England faced following the T20 World Cup and the Ashes centred on their inability to perform under pressure, since they have an excellent record against lower-ranked teams in bilateral series but they have not won a global tournament since 2017 or an Ashes series since 2014.

Edwards, who took over from Jon Lewis in April, admits England are not favourites but says they are becoming more familiar and aware of their gameplan for 50-over cricket.

“I’ve definitely come here to win the tournament, of course, but Australia are always going to go in as favourites, India are in their backyard,” said Edwards.

“So we know where we sit, but we also know that we can beat any team on our day and I think we’ve shown that over the last week, but we’ve got to do it consistently. We’ve got to do it under pressure in big events.

“I think around our batting, we’ve got a blueprint that we want people to get big scores, big partnerships, set up the game for the last 20 overs and the players are starting to understand batting time.”

Edwards also spoke of a desire to deliver more success after England’s triumph at the Rugby World Cup, saying that the team got together to watch the Red Roses beat Canada at Twickenham.

“We were truly inspired by those group of girls. I think they’ve been wonderful and hopefully we can build on that coming into our World Cup now,” added Edwards.

“I don’t think it adds pressure. I just think it just inspires us to want to go replicate what they’ve done, and it’s great to see England and female sport in such a great place.”