England look to stay 'brave' as Ashes slip out of grasp

England landed on Australian shores at the start of this month filled with confidence that this time things would be different, buoyed by memories of a 2023 campaign that came ohsoclose to finally regaining the Ashes.

Less than three weeks later, those hopes are dashed after Australia claimed the eight points required to keep the Ashes at the first possible opportunity.

Arriving at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday, England would have felt the scales were tipping in their favour: they had returned to their favoured T20 format while Australia were in disarray, with their captain Alyssa Healy and star of Friday's ODI Ashleigh Gardner both ruled out with injury.

The toss of the coin fell in Heather Knight's favour and she put Australia into bat, knowing that while Australia have only lost six out of 33 T20Is in the last two years, all bar one of those defeats have come when they have been asked to set a target.

But Australia were ruthless, punishing England's fumbles in the field as they piled on 8-198.

Needing the equal-second-highest chase in women's T20Is to keep their Ashes dream alive, England were once again outclassed as Sophia Dunkley's lone hand of 59 was nowhere near enough.

Afterwards, an emotional England squad were left to ponder what can be salvaged from here.

Dunkley pointed out the obvious in her post-match press conference: there are still eight points on offer and England could still win the three remaining matches to deny Australia an outright win, just as they did in 2023.

But while that 2023 campaign was a comeback tale for the ages, with England recovering from 0-6 down to keep their dream alive until Australia eked out a three-run win in the second last match of the series to finally retain the Ashes, the vibe midway through this edition is far different.

In 2023 there was a sense that England were not too far off that elusive series win – that hope, for this tour at least, has now been snuffed out emphatically by Australia.

"We're obviously very disappointed with the results today, we came here with a really open mindset of a new format, a fresh format," Dunkley said. 

"We just couldn't put them under pressure for long enough today and come away falling short.

"But there's still eight points out there to get so we're going to go into that doing everything we can to try and come away with those eight points, and there's still a lot for us to play for going into the next few games. 

"We're playing Australia on their home soil, so coming here and doing that was always going to be tough to get over the line and win the Ashes.

"But I think over the last few games, they've just put us under pressure a bit more than we have done to them, and we've not come away winning those big moments." 

The first priority for England will be avoiding a repeat of their 2022 Ashes tour of Australia, where the only points they claimed came via a drawn Test and two washed out ODIs.

Grasping the key moments when they present themselves would be vital, Dunkley said, as she threw her support behind captain Heather Knight to turn the team around.

"There's been periods of time where we've been really good and we've been really dominant," Dunkley said. 

"I think for us, it's just about doing that for longer and winning the small moments, or the big moments, we just haven't done that yet.

"We just back Heather 100 per cent to lead us out there, and she's done the job amazingly for the last for a long time and she's a massive part of our changeroom, a massive leader, and I back her 100 per cent to help turn this team around and all we can do is stick together now and fight as hard we can for the last three games."

Both teams will travel to Canberra by bus on Tuesday, and have a day to recollect themselves ahead of the second T20I at Manuka Oval on Thursday evening.

While Australia's primary focus will be on determining the extent of Healy and Gardner's injuries and what they mean for the remainder of the series, England will need to brush off their disappointment and rally themselves for another crack at their first points of the tour.

Dunkley's innings was the major positive from England's performance on Monday, as she hammered 59 from 30 balls in her first outing of the series after missing selection for the one-dayers.

"It's really important that we keep our eyes very much focused on how we want to play as a team and how we want to come across and we could go out there and then try our best and still lose," Dunkley said. 

"Either way, we just want to give it our best shot and we pride ourselves on trying to be brave and we'll try and do that again.

"I just wanted to come in and try and contribute as much as I could to the team and I think I just pride myself on being aggressive and trying to take the bowlers on and putting the team under pressure ... I'll continue to do that going forward and try and give us a chance of getting those points on the board."

Australia meanwhile will be eager to avoid a repeat of their 2017-18 and 2023 Ashes campaigns, which ended in draws after they failed to land the final winning blow on England.

Asked on Monday if a whitewash was possible, opener Beth Mooney was not getting ahead of herself.

"(Retaining the Ashes) is huge and I think there's a lot of excitement within the group to do it in that fashion. But there's still points on offer in this series so we look into the next game pretty quickly," Mooney said.

"I don't know if we'll look that far ahead (to a whitewash), but I think we'll certainly take stock tonight and enjoy that win, that was a pretty special win after some great performances in the ODIs and then trying to play our way a little bit more in T20 cricket and put a marker out there.

"Hopefully the conversation in the dressing room is that we've got to play on Thursday like we're on no points and it's the start of the series. This group's hungry to keep getting better ... and really important thing is that we've got the personnel that can keep pushing the boundaries."

Commbank Women's Ashes 2025

Australia lead the multi-format series 8-0

First ODI: Australia won by six wickets

Second ODI: Australia won by 21 runs

Third ODI: Australia won by 86 runs

First T20I: Australia won by 57 runs

Second T20I: January 23: Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7.15pm AEDT

Third T20I: January 25: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 6.45pm ACDT (7.15pm AEDT)

Australia squad (ODI/T20Is): Alyssa Healy (c), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris+, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath (vc), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

England squad (ODI/T20Is): Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross*, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson+, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath+, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp+, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith+, Danni Wyatt-Hodge

* ODIs only; + T20Is only

Day-night Test: January 30 - February 2: MCG, Melbourne, 2.30pm AEDT

Australia Test squad: TBC

England Test squad: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge

The rivalry resumes with a blockbuster series in Australia from Jan 12 - Feb 2. Learn about the remarkable 90-year history at the Women's Ashes Hub