Monday 22 July 2019 20:43, UK
England Women’s captain Heather Knight says the upcoming T20I games against Australia are an ideal opportunity for her side to recover after failing to regain the Ashes.
Knight's side can no longer win back the urn from Australia after the only Test of the multi-format series finished in a draw at Taunton.
But the skipper highlighted the importance of the three short-form fixtures that are yet to come against Australia - particularly as England begin their preparations for the next T20 World Cup, to be held Down Under early next year.
"We're disappointed at losing the Ashes but now we've got to treat this T20 series as a separate series," said Knight.
"It's three games to show what we can do. We haven't given a good account of ourselves and played to the standards we know we can play to.
"We've got a lot of resilience in that team. Unfortunately, the game was probably gone today - it was a little bit too much to ask."
England were on the back foot as they began the final day of the Test, battling to avoid the follow-on - but they scraped past that target largely thanks to Nat Sciver's excellent knock of 88.
Knight declared soon afterwards with a first-innings deficit of 145 and the home side's hopes were briefly raised after lunch when Laura Marsh struck twice in an over to reduce Australia to 15-2.
However, Ellyse Perry's unbeaten 76 ensured that Australia bolted the door as they batted out the remainder of the game to close on 230-7.
"We wanted to be positive and give Nat the best chance to score quickly," added Knight. "I think she was really unlucky, that innings she played under pressure - she deserved a hundred.
"Then the plan was to attack them with the spinners and there was that period where we really put them under pressure, but unfortunately it was not to be."
The first T20 match of the series takes place at Chelmsford on Friday, with further games to follow at Hove and Bristol - all live on Sky Sports Cricket.
