Women's World Cup 2025: England are 'chalk and cheese' from the Ashes, says Nat Sciver-Brunt

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt says that her team are "chalk and cheese" compared to how they felt after the Ashes defeat at the beginning of the year.

Sciver-Brunt took over as captain after the 16-0 thrashing at the hands of Australia, which saw Heather Knight removed from her position alongside coach Jon Lewis, who was replaced by Charlotte Edwards.

The all-rounder now prepares to lead England in a World Cup for the first time, with their opening game against South Africa in Guwahati on Friday.

"Everyone feels really relaxed and feels pretty confident in what we've done in terms of the preparation," Sciver-Brunt told BBC Sport.

"We are just in a better place coming from about eight, nine months ago in Australia when we were feeling pretty low as a side. I think from that we're pretty much chalk and cheese."

The difficult winter also saw England knocked out of the T20 World Cup in the group stages last autumn, and led to scrutiny surrounding the team's fitness, attitude and ability to perform in high-pressure situations.

In their home summer, Sciver-Brunt oversaw a clean sweep in both white-ball formats against West Indies in her first series in charge but they were subsequently beaten in both series against a far superior India, who are hosting the World Cup with Sri Lanka.

But Sciver-Brunt added that things had improved "both on and off the field" as England begin their quest for a first trophy since the famous World Cup win over India at Lord's in 2017.

"We felt like we couldn't do anything right out in Australia and we obviously felt hugely negative about our whole experience there.

"Cricket-wise, we just didn't put out the performances that we wanted to and that we would have been proud of.

"We have been reflecting on that, trying to draw a line in the sand and bringing in different things on and off the pitch. It has been a really good catalyst for us to be in the place that we are now.

"We're quietly confident about our abilities and confident in the way that we want to go about things."

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