England have arranged a full A tour of Australia, just two months after a disastrous Women’s Ashes campaign, Telegraph Sport understands.
It will be a full series, including three T20 matches, three one-day games and a four-day red-ball game, in an almost exact copy of the senior series in January and February.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is conducting what Clare Connor promised to be a “thorough and honest” review into what went wrong during the embarrassing 16-0 whitewash at the start of the year.
The ECB has been speaking to players, team staff and those outside the England Women set-up. That is undoubtedly complicated by the fact that head coach Jon Lewis and seven players travelled almost immediately to India to compete in the Women’s Premier League.
A tours – or Lions tours – are not uncommon in cricket but the timing of this one is unusual, and not just because the matches will coincide with an ECB review. More often than not, Lions tours in the men’s game are used to prepare for or run alongside a senior tour to allow for players to be called up in case of injury, or for younger and fringe players to make a case for inclusion in the main squad.
For example, this winter the men’s Lions played three red-ball multi-day fixtures against two Cricket Australia XIs and one Australia A match, which was given first-class status.
The men’s squad for the tour was announced in December, and was formulated to allow some on the fringes of the first team and younger players an opportunity to impress in conditions the men’s side will face in the Ashes next winter.
The women are scheduled to start their tour this month, yet they have not yet officially confirmed any players, venues or tour details, although those who are in the squad have known since the end of 2024.
Instead, a 15-player England Women Cricket Pathway squad is heading for Abu Dhabi, including eight involved in the pace-bowling performance group. The announcement came the day those players departed.
It is unclear whether the same players who have trained in Abu Dhabi will be then flying to Australia, or whether it will be a combined or different group. The 15-strong squad will return to the UK on March 8, with the first T20 in Australia scheduled for March 26.
The ECB has already started to make changes to the women’s set-up despite the review not being presented yet to the Performance Cricket Committee, a sub-committee of the governing body’s board.
It is currently advertising for four England Women’s Cricket Pathway lead scouts, looking at batting, pace bowling, spin bowling and wicketkeeping. It suggests the ECB has already identified a weakness of the current England Women’s side, which has very little player turnover.
The application process for those roles closes on March 16, before the review findings are expected to be published, and before the A squad’s tour of Australia.
The ECB has been contacted for comment.
