Alyssa Healy: Jon Lewis, the England women’s head coach, said he is taking quite a lot of learnings from captain Alyssa Healy in the ongoing season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). Lewis is currently in WPL 2024 as the head coach”We spar a lot about England-Australia. I’ll be taking quite a lot of learnings from the work that I do here with Alyssa. I learnt a lot last year and I think that really helped us in the Ashes last summer.”
“I’m really fortunate to have the Australia captain and vice-captain in this group. It’s nice to get a bit of insight into them. Of course, they are getting insight into how I do things,” said Lewis to BBC Sport.
He also delved into how he’s changed his coaching style at the WPL. “I would coach a little differently in this franchise than what I would with England. As a coach, you have to flex your style to suit the group of people you’re with. My sense is I am learning more about them than they are learning about me.”
The next edition of the women’s Ashes will take place in Australia in early 2025, and Lewis, 48, hopes for a good turnout at the venues during the series. “I hope Cricket Australia are able to put on as good a show as we did in England and get people in the grounds.”
“I hope we get really good crowds and the Australians turn out to support their team. Hopefully, we get a few England fans out there, maybe a few of the Barmy Army supporting the women as well as they do the men.”
Lewis will link up with the England team on March 12, ahead of the white-ball tour of New Zealand. Nat Sciver-Brunt, Alice Capsey, Sophie Ecclestone and Danni Wyatt will remain till the end of the WPL on March 17, with the quartet to link up with England from fourth T20I onwards.
“For players that were already contracted here, we left them to decide what they wanted to do and how they wanted to go about it. We were really open to players missing the start of the New Zealand series.”
“What we weren’t prepared to do was bring in players ad hoc, so that players we were giving opportunities to in the early part of the New Zealand series were always looking over their shoulder thinking ‘if they get knocked out of the WPL, is my position in danger?’
“That side was set in stone for the first three games. I’m really strong on growing the depth of our squad, so this is an ideal opportunity to do that,” he concluded.