Charlotte Edwards: 'This will be one of the hardest England squads to pick'

Charlotte Edwards knew what she was getting into.

One year into the job as England head coach and 52 days away from a T20 World Cup on home soil, Edwards believes she and her players are "as prepared as we can be".

"When I first took on this job, I knew exactly what was ahead of us," Edwards tells the ESPNcricinfo Powerplay podcast. "Home World Cup, and I've said it to the players: this comes once in your lifetime, in terms of career. You can really sense that from the players, that they know this is super special and something everyone wants to be a part of."

So what has changed over the past 12 months, when Edwards took over from Jon Lewis following a bleak Ashes tour of Australia and, before that, a group-stage exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup?

Edwards has seen her squad grow in confidence and depth with a 30-strong party travelling to Pretoria last month for training and a series of intra-squad T20 practice matches. The size of the touring party indicates that the growing talent pool touted as a result of increased professionalisation over the past five years is coming to fruition.

That has left Edwards with some potential selection dilemmas as she looks to balance a squad which has a long-established core of experienced players with some very green but excitingly talented youngsters.

Among the latter group, Edwards singled out uncapped teens Davina Perrin and Tilly Corteen-Coleman along with 21-year-old allrounder Jodi Grewcock for standing out during the South Africa trip.

Perrin initially put herself in the frame with a 42-ball century in last year's Hundred Eliminator while left-arm spinner Corteen-Coleman played every match in Pretoria on an exercise billed as the players' big chance to push for selection despite being only 18 years old. Meanwhile, Grewcock, who bowls legspin, answers a gaping hole in England's line-up as a left-handed batter.

"It's probably going to be one of the hardest teams, certainly, I'll have to pick, or we'll have to pick as the selection group," Edwards says. "But equally, what England have probably had to pick over the last sort of 10 years, there is a real depth of talent now and players performing week in, week out.

"That's where we wanted to be coming into this. It certainly makes our jobs as selectors really, really hard. But I'd certainly rather it be like that than having easy calls to make going into a World Cup."

There have also been changes regarding the squad's physical conditioning, after Edwards introduced minimum fitness benchmarks in the wake of criticism before she took over. That came amid a disastrous fielding display at the last T20 World Cup and after comparisons with the clinical Australians at the start of 2025.

On a surface level, the social media posts of many England's players are now notably more focused on physical and mental wellbeing with attention on gym workouts, running, healthy meals, spa breaks and insights into life as professional athletes.

Pictures on party boats, which raised eyebrows during the T20 World Cup in Dubai, and even a short-lived but widespread obsession with golf which mirrored the downtime pursuits of the England Men's squads, have all but faded into recent memories.

"All I asked at the start was that, if they're going to post something on social media, it needs to have a positive impact on them and us as a team," Edwards says. "And the players have been great in that space.

"There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and some of the players really show that to the wider world, which I think is great. I certainly don't have any influence over their social media, but that was one thing I said at the start and I think everyone's stuck to that."

But Edwards says there have been more tangible improvements, too.

"We want players to aspire to get to certain levels," she says of fitness standards. "It's not a, 'you're in or you're out', it's more individual improvement and knowing what that benchmark looks like for each individual player, is really important. So it's very individualised.

"All I've ever asked of the team is that we work as hard as we possibly can and we strive to be the best we can possibly be every single day. If you set that as an expectation, the team have been amazing, how we've bought into that. And I must say, at the start, the standards weren't as bad as people kind of made out. But what we have seen is significant shifts in 12 months and continue to.

"How professional you are off the field and how dedicated you are has an impact massively on what you do on the field. I'm a big believer in that. I can really see some shifts we've made in that respect.

"Fielding is probably the easiest one to highlight because I think physically, if you're in a really good place, your fielding is going to do so. The work we've put in that area, it's probably the easiest area to measure at times. So I'm really, really happy, everyone is working as hard as we possibly can."

An Edwards-led England was still a work in progress at the 50-over World Cup in October, where they reached the semi-finals after a single group-stage defeat. It was a record which flattered a campaign where the batting line-up struggled to fire, and the team was knocked out in a thumping 125-run loss to eventual runners up South Africa.

That followed home T20 and ODI series against West Indies, both of which England swept 3-0 in Edwards' first assignments in charge, and India, who won 3-2 and 2-1 respectively before going on to become 50-over world champions.

"Within six months, we had an ODI World Cup and, at times, we played some brilliant cricket," Edwards says. "We didn't get to where we wanted to, but I think saw real progress in that time and the winter's just been great to work with these players, actually spend time, because as an international coach, sometimes you lack time with players, which is hard. But I've definitely had that - we, as a coaching team - have had that this winter, which has been really beneficial."

The time is fast approaching for Edwards to show off those benefits in home series against defending T20 champions New Zealand and India before the ultimate test of a home World Cup.

She has been there before, captaining England to victory in the 2009 World Twenty20 final at Lord's, three months after raising the World Cup in Australia. While she wasn't part of England's 2017 World Cup-winning side, having been axed from selection reckoning the year before, several of her current players were. It means that this edition represents something of a full-circle moment for the coach and her charges, not to mention the sport in this country.

Plenty of pressure then, although Edwards is keen to shield her players as much as she can. But she does, briefly, allow herself to consider what it would mean to win the tournament.

"It would be just the most unbelievable feeling," Edwards says. "Having experienced it myself as a player, and a number of the players who are going to be hopefully in this team experienced 2017, you really understand the enormity of what you can do for the sport, the memories you'll create yourself as well."

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