“We Will Look back at This World Cup as a Game-Changer”

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt speaks ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup:

It’s often said but there’s nothing quite like playing cricket in India. It really is special. And it’s even more special when it’s a World Cup. I’ve been lucky enough to play quite a lot of cricket in India but I think World Cup cricket – especially with the prospect of passionate home support for India – is truly next level.

We will be trying our hearts out to try and go all the way. The outcome of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup last year shows you that the margins between the teams are not always as big as people might think.

Our job is to do everything we can to be in the mix towards the business end of the competition, and we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got.

Whether we’re there or not, you do get the feeling this could be a seismic moment for the women’s game. If you think about India getting over the line in a close game, with all the noise and drama and excitement that it could bring, I think you begin to get a sense of what this competition could do for women’s cricket in India.

I’ve seen that growth in the WPL, but a World Cup is something else. I hope whatever outcome we see, we see that. I think we’ll all look back on our career when we’re retired and mark the World Cup in India as a game-changer.

On a personal level, I’m so excited to be captaining my country at a World Cup.

I don’t think it’s something you think about growing up because all you can dream about is representing your country at all but it’s an honour – and one I’m quite humbled by.

I’ve had a taste of the job with the West Indies and India series this summer and it was really enjoyable to work alongside Lottie and to begin to shape how we want our team to play. There are a number of important things for us as we set about building our team for this competition and for next summer’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on home soil but ultimately it comes back to winning. That’s our job, that’s our focus.

Every other captain will be thinking the same thing though and there won’t be any easy games at this tournament. We’ll all have to adapt to the conditions, the travel, the schedule.

We made the final last time out in New Zealand, in a tournament that was still affected by COVID-19, and obviously back in 2017 we lifted the trophy, so our recent record gives us something to be excited about.

I believe we’ve got a good mix of players who’ve been there and done it before and players for whom this is all very new and exciting. There’s a huge amount of talent in this group and we’ve got a coach who knows exactly what it takes to win a World Cup. The job now is to put that all together on the pitch, to win the big moments and to step up when the pressure’s on to take us as far as we can possibly go.