Before we begin any kind of Ashes attack on England, it is worth accepting just how good Australia are.

After sweeping their opponents in the Women’s Ashes ODIs, the Southern Stars secured victory in the opening T20 – and with it an Ashes retention – without captain Alyssa Healy and star all-rounder Ash Gardner, due to foot and calf injuries respectively.

Those high-profile absences did not unduly affect Australia with Healy’s replacement at the top of the order, debutant Georgia Voll, and Gardner’s in the middle, Grace Harris, each chipping in with the bat in a 57-run win for the dominant hosts in Sydney.

Australia’s batting line-up is deeper than a skinflint’s pockets and they have more people adept at spin than a political party. Put simply, they are better than England.

While the gap appeared to close as England fought back from 6-0 down for a creditable 8-8 draw on home soil in 2023, the difference between the sides now is chasmic.

The tourists are 8-0 down after four games and although another 8-8 stalemate is still within their grasp – if they win the final two T20s and sole Test match – a scarring defeat, such as the 12-4 reverses in 2019 and 2022, is possible and perhaps likely.

Sloppiness costs England as Australia retain Ashes

What will frustrate England is for how strong Australia continue to be – this is a side that that has not lost an Ashes since 2014 and won six of the nine T20 World Cups and seven of the 12 ODI versions – the perilous position they find themselves in is in partly their own fault. Down to the own sloppiness. Their own poor decisions.

Take Monday’s T20 opener as the latest example. Two Freya Kemp wides in the first over helped Australia rack up 11. Lauren Bell was then wayward in a second over in which Sophia Dunkley let a ball through her legs and allowed the hosts to steal a single.

Bell went on to drop Voll at short fine leg in the third, wicketkeeper Amy Jones grassed Beth Mooney – who made 75 – on 16 in the seventh. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Charlie Dean left a catch for each other in the eighth with Mooney on 23.

All that, coupled with Australia’s class – Phoebe Litchfield’s switch hit for six off Sarah Glenn was a thing of dazzling beauty – meant the hosts raced to 90-1 at halfway.

It was a dominant position Australia would not squander, despite Dunkley’s boundary-laden 59 from 30 balls in England’s run chase threatening a heist at one stage. In the end, the margin of victory was handsome. A thrashing, in truth.

England needed a win (or some rain) to keep the Ashes alive but neither materialised, as Heather Knight’s team came up short in crunch game again, something that is becoming a worrying trend.

England found wanting in big games again

Already in this multi-format series, they have wasted the chance to win the second ODI due to playing out too many dot balls, injudicious shot selection and an ill-judged non-single from Jones that exposed No 11 Bell to the deadly accurate Megan Schutt.

That followed on from a glut of soft dismissals and fielding blemishes in the opening ODI, which England lost by four wickets.

Australia displayed rare signs of frailty in both games but the tourists could not pounce and they were then blown away in the third as Ash Gardner followed a century with a sublime boundary catch in a stunning fielding display from the home team.

Australia know how to win when it matters and England don’t.

We have seen that in the last two T20 World Cups with Knight’s side folding in the 2023 semi-final against South Africa and then wilting against West Indies in 2024 while Knight was off the field nursing a calf strain as they were dumped out in the group stage.

Pressure on Knight and Lewis?

Now another shot at winning the Ashes has slipped by and will surely lead to questions about the futures of Knight and coach Jon Lewis.

England are trophyless in big tournaments since the 50-over World Cup in 2017 and Lewis’ Jonball approach – a focus on aggression that he learned from working with Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes in the early knockings of Bazball – has brought entertaining cricket but no silverware, which is what he was appointed to deliver.

Knight has been captain since 2016 so may feel time is right to hand over the reins and focus on batting, yet with no obvious successor – her charges crumbling against West Indies showed a lack of leadership from elsewhere – and the carrot of a T20 World Cup on home turf in 2026, she could be tempted to carry on.

She has the backing of her players – Dunkley, if rather predictably, says the team are “100 per cent” behind Knight – but something may have to change for England to break out of this big-game trough, whether that is captain, coach or playing personnel.

Australia may be too strong but England need to be stronger.

Women’s Ashes – results and fixtures

All dates and times UK and Ireland