The ECB’s Managing Director of Women’s Cricket, Clare Connor, has said that the possibility of a Test versus India this summer “holds real excitement” .

BCCI Honorary Secretary Jay Shah, tweeted on International Women’s Day, March 8th, that a one-off Test between England and India would take place later this year.

Speaking today at a Q&A hosted by The Cricket Society Clare Connor said that England’s summer schedule was still being finalised but that they were in conversation with multiple boards, including South Africa, New Zealand and India.

The situation is complicated by the fact that South Africa are currently on the UK government’s “Red List”, meaning the players could not enter the country without a prior 10-day quarantine period in a third country.

Connor went on to say that she was hopeful the ECB would be in a position to make an official announcement about the international schedule in the next couple of weeks.

The ICC have announced a significant expansion to the World Cup and T20 World Cup, with the 50 over tournament expanding from 8 teams and 31 matches in 2025, to 10 teams and 48 matches in 2029.

TheT20 World Cup will expand from the current 10 teams, to 12 teams and 33 matches from 2026.

Together with the new “Champions Cup”, which will involve the top 6 teams, a major international tournament is scheduled to be held every year going forwards.

ICC Chief Executive, Manu Sawhney, said:

“We have a clear focus and commitment to an ambitious long-term growth plan for the women’s game. We have been building momentum around the women’s game for the last four years investing in global broadcast coverage and marketing to drive fan engagement.”

“This decision to expand our women’s events builds on these foundations and allows us to give more member countries greater opportunities to compete on a global stage. This means that more teams will also get the opportunity to compete in the qualification pathways for the respective ICC events over the coming years.”

England strolled to another comfortable victory in the 3rd T20 by 32 runs, to take the rubber 3-0. Tammy Beaumont pocketed the Player of the Series cheque for $1,000, and Katherine Brunt drank up the Player of the Match champagne, after taking 2 wickets in the first over of New Zealand’s reply to England’s 128; but for me, “Sergeant” Fran Wilson was the key that unlocked England’s win today.

The home commentators described England as having “limped” to their total – but although they did lose 9 wickets, that really wasn’t the case at all, as the upwards trend line on England’s Manhattan shows.

Wilson, who came to the crease with 8 overs remaining, made 31 off 23 balls – the highest score, at by far the highest strike rate, of the match. Perhaps the only criticism you could lay on Wilson was that, like Tammy Beaumont in the 3rd ODI, she trusted England’s tail a little too much, and didn’t farm the strike as much as she might have done, facing under half of the 48 balls she spent in the middle.

That’s picking nits though. In order to understand Wilson’s contribution, just imagine what might have happened if she’d gotten out early – her 31 runs were almost exactly England’s margin of victory; and without them, England probably would have been bowled out too, which would have put the momentum squarely with New Zealand to win this match in very-much the fashion they did the 3rd ODI.

Indeed, at one stage it looked like they would win it in exactly the fashion they won the 3rd ODI – with Satterthwaite and Kerr set at the crease and going at pretty-much a run a ball, a repeat performance was on the cards, with the White Ferns ahead of the worm.

But neither Kerr nor Satterthwaite were able to stick around this time, and New Zealand fell away to 96 all out.

Fran Wilson wasn’t even supposed to play today – she only came in because Heather Knight sat out with a “minor” hamstring injury; and all the fuss in this series has been about getting an opportunity for Sophia Dunkley, who did indeed get her shot today, having not faced a ball in the first two T20s.

Dunkley didn’t disappoint either, making 26 off 29 balls, including the only six of the match; but it was Wilson’s contribution – just calmly getting on with it, running the singles hard, on a day when boundaries were the exception rather than the rule – which allowed England to build a winning total, which the White Ferns just didn’t have the batting to match.

Putting the loss of the 3rd ODI behind them, England got straight back to winning ways in New Zealand, beating the hosts by 7 wickets with a whopping 4 overs to spare. It’s more than a year now since England’s defeat to South Africa in Perth at the T20 World Cup, and they are unbeaten in the format since, with 9 wins in a row. (We won’t talk about that abandonment on semi-final day in Sydney!)

New Zealand got off to a wobbly start, losing Devine and Satterthwaite for a combined 4 off 12 balls, so although Kerr and Jensen took 18 runs off the last two overs of the powerplay they were already playing catch-up even before a middle-overs slump which saw them go from 33-2 at the end of the powerplay, to 38-4 at the halfway mark – losing two wickets and scoring just 5 runs in 4 overs. That’s 24 balls barely scoring a run – perhaps not entirely uncoincidentally, the exact margin of England’s victory in terms of balls to spare.

Sarah Glenn had a great day with the ball, and was deservedly named Player of the Match. It wasn’t just her figures either, good though those were, taking 2-11 at an Economy Rate of 2.75. I don’t know if someone had had a word with her, but having struggled a tad in the ODIs where she looked to be trying too hard to turn it like Amelia Kerr, she was back to her best today. Keeping it simple, she played to her strengths of line and length. The delivery that bowled Maddy Green was classic Glenn – a bit of overspin turned a straight ball, which looked to be there for the pulling, into a wicket ball which zipped under Green’s bat and into the stumps – job done!

Chasing just 96, England never looked troubled. After 8 overs they were 53-0 – half way there already, with Beaumont and Wyatt making hay. Wyatt wasn’t quite “Classic Wyatt” but 33 off 26 balls was her best T20 outing since her 55 against Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur in December 2019 – a run of 15 matches, including the Indian T20 Challenge, without passing 30, which was starting to become slightly concerning.

The one disappointment is that England were too good for Sophia Dunkley to get a bat, though she will look back happily on a brace of catches on the boundary. Dunkley was carded to come in at 6, but England didn’t need her as Sciver and Jones steered them calmly home – Sciver showing her “Game Management” by happily playing out 5 consecutive dot-balls from Amelia Kerr, because by that point the result was already in the bag.

England’s remaining two games will also both now be played at the Sky Stadium, on the same drop-in pitch which will also be used by the New Zealand men playing Australia, so that could make things interesting against Amelia Kerr in the 2nd and 3rd T20s… or it could not – drop-in pitches can sometimes be a bit too good these days – we’ll find out on Friday!