England should take positives from T20 World Cup final defeat to Australia but have big decisions to make before Ashes

Taking the positives is probably quite a hard thing to do when you have just been emphatically dispatched in your home T20 World Cup final by your oldest rivals.

But that is exactly what England should do.

Yes, it is now nine defeats in a row for the team against Australia - four T20s, as many ODIs and a solitary Test match.

However, this does not feel like the 2025 Ashes, a series in which seven of those nine losses came and a side devoid of belief and prone to fielding errors folded to a 16-0 shellacking on points.

When the dust has settled, England will realise that.

Charlotte Edwards - a serial winner as a player and likewise as a coach in domestic and franchise cricket - has eliminated (most) of the fielding blunders and brought back the belief.

She also believes England have won back the fans.

The next thing for the side to get back is the biggest trophies in the women's game because those have eluded them for too long.

Since a T20 and ODI World Cup double in 2009, when Edwards was captain, England have picked up only one global trophy - the 2017 50-over World Cup on home soil - despite being in six finals. They have not won an Ashes series in over a decade.

The reason for that, bar their own shortcomings, is Australia - the benchmark side in women's cricket and one of the benchmark sides across the entire sporting landscape.

The Southern Stars have recorded four comprehensive Ashes victories from the last six - the other two series ended in draws - while they are the ones to have inflicted each of those five white-ball final defeats England have suffered over the last 14 years.