Knight insists England still in Ashes hunt with white-ball shift

England insist their hopes of regaining the women's Ashes are not over despite Australia already having one hand on the trophy after their win in the sole Test.

Ashleigh Gardner's heroics to spin Australia to an 89-run win at Trent Bridge on Monday have given Australia a 4-0 points lead in the multi-format series.

Two points are available for each of the remaining three Twenty20 and one-day games, making eight the magical number for Australia to retain the Ashes.

It means England would need to win five of those six games to win back the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 2015.

Highlighting the magnitude of the task ahead of the hosts, England have been limited to one win in their past 13 completed white-ball games against Australia since 2019.

But captain Heather Knight insisted there was still hope.

"We have to believe, of course," Knight said.

"We'll not look too far ahead. I think when you look at it like that is tricky mentally, but you have to look at the first game and that'll be Edgbaston on Saturday.

"We won't be looking too far ahead of that."

Knight insisted there were positives to take from England's performance in the Test, believing that her side had gone toe-to-toe with Australia for the majority of the match.

England looked in the hunt to chase down 268 for victory in the fourth innings when they got away to a start of 0-55, before Gardner took 8-66 to run through the hosts.

"We'll just park it," Knight said.

"Obviously, we've got quite an uphill battle but I think if we continue to play the way we want to and put the Australians under pressure through how we play.

"The main thing will be getting our mentality right coming back again at Edgbaston.

"It's a format we've played a hell of a lot of cricket, particularly recently with the World Cups. It's a format we know very well and we play very well."

CommBank Ashes Tour of the UK 2023

Australia lead the multi-format series 4-0

Test: Australia won by 89 runs

First T20I: July 1 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, 6.35pm (3.35am July 2 AEST)

Second T20I: July 5 at The Oval, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 6 AEST)

Third T20I: July 8 at Lord’s, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 9 AEST)

First ODI: July 12 at The County Ground, Bristol, 1pm (10pm AEST)

Second ODI: July 16 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, 11am (7pm AEST)

Third ODI: July 18 at The County Ground, Taunton, 1pm (10pm AEST)

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

England Test squad: Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver-Brunt (vc), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Kate Cross, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt