English cricketer Lauren Winfield-Hill recently appeared on Wisden Women’s Cricket podcast where the veteran batter spoke about the recent changes in the English women’s team, with regards to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sacking the women’s team coach Jon Lewis and Heather Knight stepping down as captain.
Lewis, who joined the team as their head coach in November 2022, leaves with a record of having won 52 of the 73 games during his time as coach. Although he might boast of a strong win percentage, big losses, especially at the T20 World Cup in 2024, where England suffered a Group Stage exit and a 0-16 drubbing in the Ashes this year meant that the ECB were looking at a new face to start afresh.
The veteran English opener spoke about Lewis’ term as the English women’s team’s head coach, the highs of the Ashes 2023 home series where England won the ODI series 2-1 and T20I series 2-1 to go on to draw the series, recovering from a 0-6 trail. Winfield-Hill highlighted the importance of doing well in the big tournaments, especially the World Cups and Ashes and how the recent results have been poor for the team and Lewis’ sacking wasn’t that big of a surprise.
“He’s a good man, a good coach but it’s one of those things where you look at the results. I think there’s been some really good things that we’ve seen from, you know, Jon Lewis’ reign. The Ashes here (2023), I think we were sort of hanging on to that, we’ve been clutching at that for a little while, but it was the best English white ball series, in the ODIs and T20Is that I think we’ve seen for four or five years.
“But ultimately of late, when it matters, in the World Cup, you’re going to get judged on World Cups and Ashes series. That’s just the way it is. It is about results, but sometimes it’s the nature as well, and the nature of that Ashes series (Ashes 2025) in particular was pretty disastrous from a performance point of view,” said Winfield-Hill.
Former English cricketer Charlotte Edwards is the frontrunner to replace Lewis with Edwards boasting of a stellar coaching record. She has plenty of experience as a coach, having coached in the WBBL, The Hundred, WPL and also domestically in England.
Edwards oversaw the Southern Vipers winning the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2020 and 2021 along with various other accolades for the Vipers. She was the coach of the Southern Brave in The Hundred, seeing the team make the finals in the first two editions and finally winning the trophy in 2023.
Edwards also oversaw Sydney Sixers’ incredible run in the WBBL 2022/23 where the Sixers went unbeaten for 11 straight games before going down in the Final. Edwards also was at the helm when the Mumbai Indians won the WPL in 2023 and in 2025 as well.
Winfield-Hill spoke about what makes Edwards a good coach and why she’s the best woman for the job. She said, “I think she creates a good environment, I think people get excited about playing for her. I’ve worked with her at Adelaide Strikers, when she was the batting coach. She’s not overly technical, she does make you feel good, she makes you feel like you’re ready to go out there and take the game on.
“But I think, you know, the general vibe and the general chat around the spaces that she coaches in is that she creates a good environment. The team is very together, and I think she’s pretty well organised and well drilled in terms of the analysis and match ups and recruiting people for particular roles,” said Winfield-Hill.
Asked whether Edwards should take up the national job, Winfield-Hill shared the thoughts about what Edwards felt before and how it may play out now.
“She always said, didn’t she, when she first came into coaching that she wanted to do her time. She didn’t want to walk straight into an England job just because she was an England legend. And she wanted to get things on her CV and get multiple experiences all around the world.
“So yeah, whether she feels, you know, the time is now, and you know she’s obviously sort of thrown her hat into the ring, I think she’d be a good candidate. I think she understands the players and she communicates really well. She shows that level of support and care,” shared Winfield-Hill.
Not only the coach, but another big change in the English camp was their star batter Heather Knight stepping down from her role as a captain. A former teammate of Knight, Winfield-Hill spoke about Knight’s captaincy, how Knight took up the role of a captain through a period of transition for the team. She also spoke about how Knight can now bat more freely with the captaincy tag off her shoulders.
“Ultimately, she’s led her country honourably. She’s got so much to be proud of. I think she’s always led with great passion and humility. She probably won’t go down as one of our greatest ever captains, on the premise of trophies in hand, but I think she’ll go down as one of our best ever players to captain England, and she still is one of the best players in that team by a long shot,” said Winfield-Hill about Knight’s leadership and why Knight is still the best in the business with the bat.
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