Cross did not play during the series as she continued to struggle with a bulging disk in her back which kept her out of the Test match in England’s previous series in South Africa. She trained with the squad during the ODI series but remained in Sydney to rehab the injury.

The ECB have launched a review into the series, the heaviest defeat in the multi-format system’s history, which is being led by ECB managing director of women’s cricket, Clare Connor. While the review was expected to conclude within four weeks of the end of the tour, there has been no announcement yet on the futures of head coach Jon Lewis or captain Heather Knight, both whose positions were set to be looked at during the process.

ODI series ❌
T20I series ❌

England’s struggles continue as Australia clinch the final T20I, to hand them a sixth straight loss in the Women’s Ashes.

Scorecard ➡️ pic.twitter.com/xE7minsJnr

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 25, 2025

“I do believe, as a team we do a lot of things really well, but there are areas we know we need to address, from cricket points of view and from cultural points of view,” said Cross, speaking at the launch of Accelerating Action for Players, a new women’s cricket impact report by the PCA which celebrates the increased professionalism of the women’s game since 2021. “I don’t know what’s going to come of this review, but I’m hoping that these are the things that will get addressed and it will pave the way for the next generation to want to play for England.

“It was unprecedented how poorly we performed over there, I don’t think anyone probably anticipated the Ashes turning out the way it did, and obviously there was huge disappointment that came with that.”

During the series, Lewis came under fire for blaming cultural differences between England and Australia for the disparity in athleticism between the two sides. However, Connor maintained after the series that cultural issues were not at the root of the performance difference.

“I feel we might have lost a few fans in the last couple of months,” Cross said. “Which is really sad from our point of view. We as cricketers know how bad that tour was – we’re not going to try to sugarcoat that. But I’d like people to fall back in love with English cricket.

“We didn’t play good cricket for any part of that tour. We can’t come away from that and say that we want to inspire and entertain people when we’re not doing our jobs as well as we should have done.”

England’s next assignment will be a home white-ball series against West Indies in May. Cross also confirmed at the event that she was hopeful of being fit again for the start of the season.

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