'We are alive': England finds inspiration in disappearance of women's ashes Women's ashes

Heather Knight says England face a battle to win the Ashes but urged her team after Australia swept the ODIs with an 86-run victory in Hobart, giving the hosts a 6-0 lead on points “Keep believing.”

England need to win all three T20 matches (scoring 2 runs each) and the one-off Test match (scoring 4 runs) to win back the Ashes. However, Knight said they will take inspiration from their performance at home in 2023, when they fought back from a Test defeat to draw the series 8-8 in the first T20.

“This is going to be tough,” the captain said. “But we've been here before. The last Ashes series was 6-0 and we turned it around. We're alive, we're still in it and we have to keep believing.

England produced their best performance of the series, chasing Australia to 59 in four overs and leveling the match midway through the chase, but failed to deliver the coup de grace with ball or bat.

“We need to stay calm,” Knight said. “They seemed to handle it well in those critical moments toward the end of the game. We couldn't seize the moment and get any advantage.

Ash Gardner, who scored her first international hundred, said the win puts Australia in a good position to retain the Ashes. “We're confident in what we're doing,” she said. “I think England don't have as much confidence as we do. We should enjoy that.

Knight revealed Kate Cross was close to playing in Hobart but England management decided not to risk a flare-up of her back injury, instead choosing to prioritize her fitness ahead of the MCG, which starts on January 30 test.

Cross will join Tammy Beaumont and Rhiana McDonald-Guy in the Test match camp, while the rest of the squad will travel to Sydney for the T20 matches.

“It's really good for us to change the format,” Knight said. “T20 cricket is one of our best formats and this small tweak will do us some good.”