Rich Pyrah believes England have a “great chance” of ending Australia’s dominance in the Women’s Ashes.
The latest chapter of the old rivalry begins tomorrow night in Sydney, with the multi-format series – something Yorkshire Women’s coach Pyrah is a huge fan of – starting with the first of three one-day internationals.
That leads into a trio of T20 internationals before a Test Match at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday January 30.
Dating back to the English summer of 2015, Australia are unbeaten in five series, winning three of them and drawing the other two. England, now captained by Heather Knight, last triumphed at the start of 2014, in Australia, when they won the series 10-8.
The last series was drawn 8-8 in England in the 2023 summer, though Australia retained ‘the Urn’.
“I think England have a great chance,” said Pyrah. “England have got a good, exciting team. It’s a young team, whereas the Aussies have got a bit more experience.
Picture by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images. Australia’s 28th Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, poses for a photo with the England team during yesterday’s warm-up match against the Australian Governor-General’s XI in Sydney. The clash was rained off with the hosts 183-8 after 28.2 overs.
“Both have got strong batting line-ups, especially Australia, who have a lot of depth. But England’s is strong as well and exciting. They score at a good rate, which is very much the new England way across all international cricket.
“The key thing is how the seam attacks are going to perform. Over there, on good pitches, whichever seam attack performs the best will give their side the best chance of winning.
“England have got some good young seamers who probably haven’t got the experience of Australian conditions. It will be interesting to see how they go.
“You can see that England have been building up to this for a couple of years, playing your Lauren Filers and your Lauren Bells, who have a bit of extra pace and bounce.
“And the Australian bowling line-up isn’t as explosive as it used to be, with the likes of (Megan) Schutt and (Ellyse) Perry in the latter stages of their careers.
“Looking at them, I just think England have got that edge on youth in the seam bowling attack, and Sophie Ecclestone is one of the best spin bowlers in the world. Put her into the mix alongside a young seam attack, and I think England have got a great chance.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Yorkshire Women’s coach Rich Pyrah has confidence regarding England’s Ashes chances.
Recent form is interesting. England have just come off a series win in South Africa in December when they won the only Test Match by 286 runs having won two of three ODIs and each of the three T20s.
Australia won a short and sharp three-match ODI series in New Zealand 2-0 just before Christmas having also just beaten India 3-0 on home soil, but they will have been stung by losing October’s T20 World Cup final to South Africa in Dubai – a shock result for the defending champions.
That disappointment can work two ways ahead of such a big series like the Ashes. Will they be nervous of more disappointment to follow or will they have renewed determination to put it right?
“The way the Aussies are, they’ll use it as a bit of a push to get back on top,” said Pyrah. “Look, it will be a tough tour for England. With that multi-format series, you have to be consistent for a long period of time. But they certainly have the quality to do that.”
Unfortunately, Yorkshire don’t have any involvement in this series which will be screened live by TnT Sports. But that is understandable given the Tier 2 status the county has for 2025.
In the coming years, however, Pyrah is confident that will change.
Picture by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images. Fast bowler Lauren Bell will be a key weapon for England over the next few weeks.
“It’s one of our aims,” he continued.
“Over the last few years, we haven’t produced enough England players.
“It’s something I feel passionate about. County cricket is here to produce players to play for England, and if we’re doing that then we’re going to be performing well as well.
“We’ve got some good talented young players who are too young at the minute. So that’s why the next two or three years are really important for us to give them the right opportunities at the right time to develop them.
“I’m excited about the next few years as to what we can do as a team but also individually and where our players can go.”
Still, Yorkshire are celebrating Erin Thomas’s England call-up to be involved in the Under 19s T20 World Cup in Malaysia, running from January 18 to February 2.
Picture courtesy of ECB. Yorkshire batter Erin Thomas is part of England’s squad for the forthcoming Under 19s T20 World Cup in Malaysia.
Eighteen-year-old batter Thomas is one of Yorkshire’s 12 full-time professionally contracted players.
“Erin’s an exciting talent who strikes the ball as cleanly as I’ve seen for a women’s cricketer,” said Pyrah.
“She’s young, she hasn’t played a lot of cricket, which is what I keeping talking about. It’s our job to give them the opportunities to learn their jobs in matches rather than just training.
“She is confident. She was brought up around sport. She played tennis to a high level as a junior.
“The next step for her is understanding her own game and transferring that ball striking ability into match-winning innings.”
Clearly, Thomas and England will be determined to win that tournament – they reached the final in South Africa in early 2023 but lost to India. However, for a young player, development and enjoyment are just as important, insists Yorkshire’s new coach.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Rich Pyrah alongside his assistant coach Chris Brice (left).
He continued: “It’s a really fine balance where we want them to develop but also to learn how to win games. It’s not all about individuals, it’s about producing winning performances and learning how to win.
“We want a balance of both. You won’t always get it but that’s what we’re aiming for. Hopefully Erin has a really good experience and enjoys it.”
Returning to the Ashes, Pyrah has revealed that he is a huge fan of the multi-format, points system.
“I do really like that model,” he said. “It keeps a series interesting all the way through and puts something on each game.
“And it’s something I’ve looked at for the summer regarding Yorkshire Women.
“We have two gaps in our season where there might be seven or eight days between games, and I’m trying to put a multi-format series together in each of those gaps, trying to get three teams involved to play a 50-over game and two T20s apiece.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Rebecca Duckworth and Sterre Kalis (right) are currently in Australia playing grade cricket.
“There would be a bit more on each game instead of just playing friendly games.
“We have proposed it to a couple of other counties and Scotland as well, and they’re keen.
“If we’re going to be playing Tier 1 teams and Scotland, that will give our girls some good experience of playing against high-end opposition with something on them. It’s really exciting that we have the time to put something like this together this year and build for Tier 1 next year.”
Former Yorkshire men’s County Championship winner Pyrah has been in his new role since the start of September and has overseen a busy and productive first half of his squad’s winter training programme.
“I’ve loved it. It’s been brilliant,” he said. “The girls have been great.
“Their work ethic has been really good, and the environment we’ve created is as good as I’ve been involved in. It’s been really enjoyable.
Picture by Albert Perez/Getty Images. Lauren Winfield-Hill (right) is in Australia playing state cricket with Queensland. Earlier this winter, she also represented Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash. Winfield-Hill links up with Yorkshire for their pre-season tour of Abu Dhabi in late March.
“I asked the girls to be open-minded in November with their games, and we’ve explored their games around the basics and fundamentals and put that time in to lay the foundations for moving forwards into the New Year.
“I couldn’t be happier with how they’ve worked.
“We’ve created a really good platform leading into our pre-season tour (of Abu Dhabi) in March.”
Pyrah will not have all 12 players together until that late March tour of Abu Dhabi, with a number of players away. Thomas is with England, while Ami Campbell, Rebecca Duckworth, Sterre Kalis and Lauren Winfield-Hill are all in Australia.
Kalis and Winfield-Hill have been playing cricket in Sydney and in Queensland all winter, while Duckworth and Campbell have just travelled.
Duckworth is playing club cricket on the Gold Coast, while Campbell has gone to Perth for a month of warm weather training.
