Coach Paul Shaw has predicted his England women side will be involved in a “ding-dong affair” when they defend the Ashes against their Australian counterparts later this year.
The series gets under way on July 21 with the first of three Royal London One-Day Internationals, while there will also be a Kia Test Match and three NatWest T20 Internationals, with the winners decided on a points system as it was two years ago.
England have lifted the urn on the last two occasions but their great rivals are the reigning world champions in both short formats of the game, so Shaw knows this summer’s series will be on a knife-edge.
He told ecb.co.uk: “I think it’s going to be a really challenging Ashes, a bit of a ding-dong affair.
“Australia are a very, very good side, let’s make no mistake. They’re World Cup holders in 50-over cricket and in T20 cricket so from that perspective they’re number one team in the world, but we do have the Ashes and we’ve won the last two so we’re looking forward to a real battle.
“It’s going to be a wonderful spectacle and one hopefully that we can get over the line still holding onto the Ashes.”
England were given a stern test over the winter against New Zealand, who took the lead in both the 20-over and 50-over series only to lose the final two matches to go down 2-1 and 3-2 respectively.
Shaw added: “(It was a) really interesting tour, a really challenging tour in many ways. Coming out on top the way we did from a tricky start was really, really pleasing.”
Charlotte Edwards celebrated her 200th match as captain of England in the Twenty20 decider, nine years after officially taking charge.
Shaw said: “Two hundred caps as England captain is pretty special and the character that she is as well, it’s well deserved.
“She’s as hungry as she’s ever been and I’m sure she’ll play for as long as she possibly can, we hope she does that. She’s still a quality player, she’s the best captain in the women’s game, bar none.”