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England head coach Jon Lewis promised a thorough review into an historic Ashes whitewash and insisted he was the “right guy” to lead them back from being demolished in Australia.
England suffered a humiliating 16-0 series thrashing as Australia completed their domination with victory by an innings and 122 runs in the day/night Test.
Alana King and Ash Gardner spun England into the ground as the tourists collapsed from 79 for one to 148 all out in their second innings at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Having lost both ODI and T20 formats 3-0, it was another sobering exercise for England who had held Australia – the number one team in women’s cricket – to an 8-8 Ashes draw on home soil 18 months ago.
Lewis told TNT Sports: “We review everything all the time, we reflect and we try and grow the team and the sport.
“Just to do it after every away Ashes series is probably not the right way to do it.
“We will look at every single aspect of what we do internally and I’m sure the people who work externally from this group, in particular, will look at that as well.
“We will have to learn and move the team forward. We obviously need to compete better across the bilateral series we play against Australia, but we’ve also got World Cups as well.
I really feel I haven’t finished the job I came here to do
England head coach Jon Lewis
“We’ve got a 50-over World Cup coming up in India this year and we’ve got to turn around things really quickly because it’s only eight or nine months away.”
Former England seamer Lewis was put in charge of the women’s side in November 2022 after being involved as bowling coach with the national men’s team.
Lewis’ position has come under scrutiny in Australia over the past few weeks and he was asked about his future after England’s fate was sealed in Melbourne.
He said: “I strongly feel that there’s real growth left in this group of players. We’ve got some really young players that have played throughout this series.
“I really feel I haven’t finished the job I came here to do.
“Obviously the results haven’t gone the way we want them, but I’m really committed to the people in the dressing room and to growing women’s cricket in England. So, yeah, I feel I am the right guy to do it.”
Captain Heather Knight’s own future was also set to be a topic of discussion in the coming months.
Asked if she had played her last Ashes match, the 34-year-old batter said: “I don’t know at the moment. It’s all quite raw and it’s happened pretty quickly.
“The future of the team is something that will be worked out in the next couple of months.”
On England’s thumping defeat, Knight added: “When this Australian team is on top they’re really good at pressing home their advantage and keeping that winning momentum.
“It’s been a really tough and frustrating tour, but we’ll look back on those first two games where we had a chance to get at least one win, maybe two wins.
“If that happens, it’s looking like a different series overall.”
