ENGLAND captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has called on her side to embrace the power of home advantage in this summer’s Women’s T20 World Cup, as the hosts look to heal some of their tournament “scars.”

England Women have won four of their five major global trophies on their own soil, including a memorable 50-over title success at a packed Lord’s in 2017.

The trail has gone cold on the road over the past nine years, with the group-stage exit in the UAE a notable low point at the previous T20 event in 2024.

Speaking at Edgbaston today with exactly 100 days to go before their curtain-raising fixture against Sri Lanka, Sciver-Brunt acknowledged that it is time to put England back in the hunt for silverware.

“Being at home definitely gives you an edge, everyone in that team will be feeling the expectation,” she told PA.

“As a captain, that’s what you sign up for and to lead the girls out on this ground will be so, so special. We know we’ll be brilliantly supported and we’re really looking forward to it. It’s in touching distance.

“It felt like that in 2017 too but you never know if you’ll get another chance to experience something like that, now here we are with 100 days to go until we have another opportunity to rewrite English Women’s cricket a little bit.

“It’s been frustrating not to have accelerated as we wanted after the last World Cup win. The senior players have probably got a few more scars than some of the younger ones, so it’s up to us not to bring that into the team environment.

“We’ve got such a youthful team, we’ll be drawing on that youthfulness and trying to live in the present as much as we can.”

Ticket sales surpassed the total for the 2017 World Cup in January and are now over 115,000, with buyers from 45 different countries and a sold out allocation for the final on July 5.

Tournament director Beth Barrett-Wild has even loftier ambitions as the fixtures edge closer and credits the Hundred with helping amplify the reach of the women’s game.

“What the Hundred did was transformative for women’s cricket. It’s not necessarily about unlocking a door but it created a stage to present the women’s game to as many people as possible,” she told PA.

“The competition in 2017 was a breakthrough moment for the game but we’re past that milestone already and we’re targeting a total attendance of around 270,000 this time.

“But we don’t just want to break records, we want this to be a moment that really changes behaviour and engagement. It’s about fan retention for 2027 and what the audience for women’s cricket looks like beyond that.”