• Hussain believes England cannot afford to be timid against Australia.
• England has been without a championship since 2009.
• Hussain is confident that England can win the T20 World Cup.

Nasser Hussain, a former England captain, thinks the Heather Knight-led team cannot afford to be shy against the reigning champions Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup. He claims that in order to win, one must take on Meg Lanning and company.

From February 10 to 26, South Africa will host the eighth Women’s T20 World Cup, with Australia aiming to win three consecutive global championships in the quickest format of the game.

“The problem for England, as with most sides, is that you go through the group stages and then are suddenly facing Australia where your standards need to be top-notch. It is quite the jump from facing everyone else to then facing Australia. If you do play Australia, you cannot be timid. You have to take them on,” wrote Hussain on Friday.

Since winning the tournament’s debut edition at home in 2009, England has been without a championship. Hussain, however, is confident that Heather, the skipper of the 2017 ODI World Cup-winning team, can win the T20 World Cup with the help of talented young players.

“England are a very good team and have had a bit of a turnaround of players since winning the 50-over World Cup in 2017. Some younger blood has come in, including the very exciting Alice Capsey.”

“They are very well led by Heather Knight. With the young talent around, you need that experience in high-pressure situations and that is exactly what Knight provides having been there and done it before in knockout games. She is a cool, calm leader.”

“New coach Jon Lewis has also tried to take on what he has learned from the men’s game and instil an aggressive, attacking style of cricket. That suits T20 and the batters England have in Capsey, Danni Wyatt, and Nat Sciver-Brunt.”

Sophie Ecclestone, the top-ranked bowler in T20I and ODI cricket, will be England’s secret weapon in the competition, according to Hussain.

“She is incredibly accurate, very tall and very difficult to get after. She is not a massive spinner of the ball but T20 for spinners is a lot about bowling that heavy ball into the pitch, skidding it on and targeting the stumps, bringing lbw and bowled into play. Rashid Khan does that for Afghanistan in the men’s game and Sophie does it for England in the women’s.”

Talking about his picks for the semifinals, Hussain said, “I would be surprised if Australia, England and India don’t make the semifinals and for me, it is then one out of New Zealand and South Africa. I would probably go New Zealand because of the experience in their line-up in Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and the Kerr sisters Amelia and Jess.”

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