England coach slams women's Ashes fixture and blames India for WPL England women's cricket team

England head coach Jon Lewis has criticized the “congested” Women's Ashes schedule and blamed the compression of the tour on the Indian Women's Super League.

The series will kick off in Sydney on January 12 and will be played in five different cities. It involves three ODIs, three T20s and a four-day Test, all within three weeks. With only four days between the third T20 and the pink-ball MCG Test, there is no time for warm-up in a longer format.

“My preference is to have more space between games, and so is the player's preference,” Lewis said. “I'm pretty sure we're going to ask for more space between the white balls. [games] and Test matches, but the schedule is back to normal.

“It won't be that simple. The schedule is very tight. There is no flexibility because of the WPL and Christmas.

The WPL will officially begin on February 21, but players may need to acclimate and media commitments in India before the tournament. England's Alice Capsey, Nat Seaver-Brent, Danny Wyatt-Hodge, Kate Cross, Sophie Ecclestone and Danny Gibson will all join.

England announced their squad for the tour of Australia on Monday, with four players set to make their Ashes debut – Freya Kemp, Lindsay Smith, Beth Heath and seamer Rhiana Mack Donal Gay, who impressed with two wickets on his Test debut against South Africa in Bloemfontein earlier this month.

Lewis said that due to the challenging schedule, England have deliberately arranged a 19-man squad and hope to use all available resources to complete the series. “It will be difficult for the players to play all the games,” he said. “I don't think you're going to see a consistent choice across the board from both sides.”

The challenge is compounded by the fact that both sides have players coming back from injury: Lewis said Gibson, Cross and Kemp are all “working their way back to full fitness”, while Australia captain Alyssa Healy has played with pure status to participate in the competition.

Lewis also strongly supports the idea of ​​staging red-ball domestic competitions for English players to ensure better preparation for future Ashes matches.

“Every time we play Test cricket, it should be based on multi-day cricket at the domestic level,” he said. “If you're playing at a senior international level, there should be some way for players to understand how to play. I think there's enough space in our domestic schedule.