
AUSTRALIA great Ellyse Perry is convinced Charlotte Edwards will get England back on the right track this week.
England have endured a difficult past 12 months, with elimination at last year’s Women’s T20 World Cup in the group stages followed by Australia’s 16-0 whitewash win in the Ashes over the winter.
The twin setbacks led to Edwards’s appointment as head coach and, while she started life in the hot seat by clean sweeping the West Indies, England have struggled in a T20 series against India.
But Perry, regarded as one of the best female players ever, is sure it is only a matter of time before Edwards gets England ticking again, having worked under her at Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League.
Perry told the PA news agency: “Without a shadow of a doubt. I don’t think that team needs too much lifting. You look at England’s personnel – they’re a wonderful team and they’ll have a lot of success.
“Sometimes you just go through a patch of things not falling the way you want them to and learning a few different things, making a few tweaks and it’s funny how things just fall into place from there.
“I’ve got no doubt Lottie will guide them in that direction. It will be great to see her in control of that team and where she can take them.”
Tammy Beaumont stepped up as captain in Nat Sciver-Brunt’s absence for the third T20 at the Oval last Friday, which England won with a last-ball five-run victory to keep the five-match series alive.
India currently lead the series 2-1 with games in Manchester and Birmingham left to play and the ECB confirmed that Beaumont will continue to lead England for the remainder of the T20s.
Former England captain Edwards has had a trophy-laden coaching career, winning titles with Southern Vipers, as well as Southern Brave in The Hundred and Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League.
Asked why she has had so much success, Perry said: “She just intuitively knows the game inside out. Her ability to impart her knowledge and wisdom on to players across the spectrum is probably unparalleled.
“What people don’t see is just how bloody hard she works. I don’t know a coach that is more invested in what she’s doing than Lottie. It’s not a surprise she’s had success.
“She’s incredibly well-credentialed for the role, but it’s the work she puts in that makes her successful.”
Edwards was supposed to take the reins of Hampshire in the first year of the women’s domestic restructure and persuaded Perry into a stint at the Rose Bowl during Australia’s off-season.
Perry, an eight-time World Cup winner and named women’s cricketer of the decade for the 2010s by the International Cricket Council, has started her Hawks spell but has profited from Edwards’s absence.
The all-rounder, who is set to star in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix next month, added: “I’ve benefited because I’m staying in her seaside apartment – so I’ll take it.”