England head coach Charlotte Edwards says her players have clearly addressed their fitness issues.
The physical condition of England’s players was a hot topic of debate before Edwards’ appointment.
Exactly 18 months ago, following England’s early exit from the Women’s T20 World Cup, former spinner Alex Hartley had said that some players were “letting the team down” in terms of fitness.
Athleticism came into focus again during the Ashes in January 2025 and former coach John Lewis attributed this to cultural differences between the UK and Australia.
Edwards introduced minimum fitness standards for England players when he replaced Lewis last year.
When asked on the BBC Test Match Special debate show whether the fitness issue had been put to rest, Edwards replied that it had been put to rest “100%”.
Edwards said, “We’re in a really good place. The results are great. I couldn’t be happier – we’ve made real progress.”
“It’s not just whether you can run around the track or not. It’s all the other elements of it that we’ve tried to make just as important.”
Edwards will on Wednesday celebrate one year in charge of England, who will host the T20 World Cup this summer.
The 46-year-old said that implementing specific benchmarks related to fitness has had the desired effect.
“I think once you set the expectations, the players know what they need to do. And we’ve added a lot of benchmarks over the winter,” Edwards said.
“We have to keep raising the bar. The players have fully embraced it, I think that’s what I set out to do and I’m really happy with the purchase.
“I don’t know if anyone has seen the fielding in the recent (intra-squad) series, but it’s the best fielding I’ve seen, certainly from our group, given the improvements we’ve made.”
Watch the full debate about the England women’s team bbc iplayer Or listen to it as a podcast BBC Sounds.
