England appoints new coach for Women's team

In an interesting development, only one name was ever considered for the position of England women’s head coach: Jon Lewis. Both of the main candidates share one name. In the end, former Gloucestershire and England seamer Jon Lewis, 47, won the race and is poised to be appointed ahead of former Durham captain and coach Jon Lewis, 52. Lewis was the bowling coach in the England men’s setup under Chris Silverwood and remained there when Brendon McCullum took over this summer. However, at the end of the season, he was moved to the player pathway; he is presently in the UAE with the Lions, with the main team expected to fly on November 19 to prepare for the Pakistan visit.

He had a long playing career with Gloucestershire, Surrey, and Sussex before becoming a coach there and with England’s Young Lions. He succeeds Lisa Keightley, who departed the position at the end of the summer to return to Australia after taking over in 2019. England did not win a major title under Keightley, but it did produce a large number of young players this summer. They even failed to win a medal at the CWG 2022 on their home turf and lost the ODI series against India 3-0 for the first time in their history.

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Important games coming up for England

As a result, Lewis accepts the position at an exciting time. England will pick a squad for their white-ball trip to the West Indies next month in the coming days. Heather Knight is due to return after recovering from hip surgery, while Nat Sciver will also return after taking a mental health leave at the end of the English summer. England will compete in the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February. Young seam bowlers with a lot of potentials, like Lauren Bell and Issy Wong, should especially look forward to working with Lewis. The player pool for him to work with is as deep as ever thanks to the governing body’s recent investment in the women’s game, which has resulted in almost 100 women playing professional cricket in England and Wales. The new English bowlers had a tough time against India when Harman and Co took them on.

According to the Telegraph, Ryan Campbell, an Australian who has recently coached the Netherlands men’s team, was also given consideration at an earlier stage for the women’s position. However, he is the favourite to succeed James Franklin as head coach of Durham. The general director of women’s cricket at the ECB, Jonathan Finch, conducted interviews with former Australia spinner Ashley Noffke and Jon Batty, coach at the Oval Invincibles and Melbourne Stars for the same position.