Outbatted, outfielded, outsmarted, outperformed.

That is a brutal but surely fair assessment of England’s torrid Ashes campaign as they became the first side to be whitewashed 16-0 since the multi-format series was established in 2013.

They arrived in Australia with dreams of regaining the trophy but the tour has turned into a complete nightmare.

For all England’s talk – bizarre talk a lot of the time – of the gap between themselves and the best women’s team on the planet having closed, the huge scoreline and the performances they put in throughout proved it has widened, not shrunk.

Perhaps, as under-fire head coach Jon Lewis said, England “poked the bear” by fighting back from 6-0 down to draw 8-8 at home to Australia in 2023 because the Southern Stars have been ruthless in extending their unbeaten run in Ashes series to six.

England found themselves 6-0 down in 2025, too, but this time there was no rally. Australia followed a clean sweep in the one-day international leg with another in the T20 internationals before going on to win the series-concluding Test match by an innings.

After a defeat of such magnitude, changes must surely be on the way for England in some form. Can Lewis and captain Heather Knight really continue? Deep down, do they have the appetite to?

Once the Ashes thumping becomes a little less raw and a review is conducted, decisions will have to be made.

Australia better but England made plenty of errors

Australia away is the biggest challenge in women’s cricket – just behind Australia anywhere else – and even if England had done everything right, they may still have ended up being beaten.

Their opponents are better than they are. It’s that’s simple. But England have done so much wrong on the field and arguably off it.

Words from players about not being far off Australia have come across as delusional at times, while Sophie Ecclestone’s apparent refusal to speak to Alex Hartley for a broadcast interview after the latter questioned England’s fitness last year smacks of a side unable to deal with criticism, at least in some quarters.

Lewis’ comments about Australia being superior athletically due to their outdoor lifestyle and sunnier weather may hold an element of truth but it was an odd thing to say out loud, particularly when he added that was not the reason England lost the series.

In fact, it was probably one of many reasons they lost the series, with misfields, dropped chances and failed boundary saves prevalent, compared to the electric efforts seen from Australia, such as Ash Gardner’s remarkable grab on the rope in the third ODI and Georgia Voll’s leaping take at backward point in the final T20.

England’s shoddy fielding plumbed new depths on day two of the pink-ball Test match at the iconic MCG as seven largely routine catches went down. It made for painful viewing.

Australia’s supremacy in energy and industry was also displayed by Beth Mooney while batting as the indefatigable opener ran 11 twos in the final T20. Busyness at the crease England have not replicated.

They have also been unable to match Australia’s ability to deliver in key moments, a worrying trait that – perhaps exacerbated by their players not featuring in domestic cricket often enough – has blighted Knight’s charges in recent Ashes series and World Cups.

They were on the verge of reaching the 2023 T20 World Cup final but then succumbed to South Africa.

They then looked on course for the knockout stages of the 2024 version before wilting against West Indies, dropping catches and appearing rudderless with Knight off the field injured.

England found wanting in Ashes but there is hope

England had their chances in the Women’s Ashes as well.

In the first ODI, they were 91-2 batting first only for Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt to hole out at deep midwicket in the space of two overs. Amy Jones was then caught and bowled after a rebuild to 145-4 with the away side eventually rolled for 204.

In the second ODI, England played out too many dot balls and gifted wickets again, while a frazzled Jones failed to take a single off the final ball of the 48th over with 22 runs required, leading to No 11 Lauren Bell being dismissed next delivery. Game gone.

England’s cricket smarts have not been there. That was evident again on day one of the Test match with Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophia Dunkley out to loose strokes after getting into the 20s, falling to Alana King’s high-quality leg-spin.

The final T20 was perhaps the hardest watch of all, though, as England subsided to 90 all out. The woeful dismissals smacked of a team devoid of confidence and ideas against spin. The tourists’ playing of Australia’s slow bowlers has been shocking throughout, with 40 wickets falling to that style of bowling.

All of that has left Lewis in a precarious position. Awful Ashes series, for men and women, rarely end without a coaching change. Chris Silverwood was given the boot after the men’s drubbing in 2021/2022, while Mark Robinson left his role with England’s women after a 12-4 shellacking at home to Australia in 2019.

Lewis wants to continue – “I haven’t finished the job I came here to do. I feel I am the right guy to do it” – and Robinson thinks he should perhaps be given the chance, telling TNT Sports: “Sometimes we cheat people of the chance to improve and grow.”

Despite this Ashes humbling, the England Women job remains an attractive one.

Ecclestone, Dunkley, Bell, Freya Kemp, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sarah Glenn, Ryana MacDonald-Gay and Lauren Filer should form the nucleus of that side for the next five years at least.

The domestic game is also developing and that new structure should boost player depth. With more cricketers on full-time contracts pressuring those already in the England XI, it will hopefully remove any element of complacency that may have crept in.

That is something Australia do not suffer with, such is the bulging talent pool at their disposal after heavy investment into the set-up.

What next if Lewis and Knight depart?

So if Lewis is not given the chance to “finish the job”, then who will?

Charlotte Edwards, an Ashes and World Cup winner as England captain, has collected a haul of trophies at domestic level: The Hundred with Southern Brave, Women’s Premier League with Mumbai Indians, oodles of silverware with the now-defunct Southern Vipers.

Edwards has played a role in the progression of Kemp, Bell, Dean, Dunkley and Maia Bouchier at Vipers and/or Brave, although she has recently been appointed as head coach of Hampshire Women so extricating her from that contract could be tricky.

If Edwards is an obvious contender as coach, the options for captain – should Knight walk away or get the chop from a job she has held since taking over from Edwards in 2016 – are not overflowing.

Sciver-Brunt is England’s best player but did not flourish as captain at the 2022 Commonwealth Games or in that West Indies abomination at last year’s T20 World Cup.

Ecclestone and Dean are regulars and, still only in their mid-20s, could take on the role for a considerable length of time.

They both have experience leading in The Hundred – Dean at London Spirit when Knight was injured and Ecclestone at Manchester Originals – but it would still be a leap of faith.

Hollie Armitage, who played three ODIs and as many T20s against Ireland last September, may be an outside bet after impressing in captaincy roles domestically, including for Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.

A home T20 World Cup in 2026 is a reason for Knight to extend her tenure as captain and it would be wrong to say England’s Ashes defeat was down to the job she did as skipper. There were far bigger factors at play.

But one look at how Joe Root – another England stalwart never quite able to win an Ashes series as leader – has enjoyed his cricket since handing over the captaincy could tempt Knight into doing the same.

Whatever England do, whether coaches and captains stand down or are sacked, the mission statement, delivered by Knight after the drubbing in the third T20, is clear.

“We need to learn, be better and remember these moments to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Women’s Ashes results 🏏