Capsey a keeper as Edwards reflects on summer's lessons

England Women's head coach planning greater focus on Tests ahead of 2027 Ashes

Alice Capsey has put herself in the frame to become England's No. 1 wicketkeeper in T20Is, according to Charlotte Edwards, who also wants an intensified focus on Test skills as part of her planning for 2027.

Edwards' major learnings as head coach from a packed 2026 summer - which included finishing runners-up at the home T20 World Cup and a historic first women's Test to be held at Lord's - settled at opposite ends of the game's spectrum.

Capsey's stint standing in for Amy Jones during the ODI series sweep against Ireland, which concluded at Worcester on Sunday, was considered a success and set her up for a more permanent gig, particularly in the shortest format.Related'Forward-looking' England press the ODI reset button

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"You've obviously all witnessed how well she's kept throughout this series and I think the idea of this was to see where she's at," Edwards said after England's 114-run win in the third match. "I think there's a real chance in T20 cricket, if I'm honest, I think the way she's done this. But I've been really, really happy with how she's kept over a 50-over series.

"I've said at the start of this series we want competition for places and that's a real positive for this group. She's certainly put her hand up in that department. I'm really, really happy with how she's performed."

Capsey scored an unbeaten 41 off 40 balls in the opening match, dominated by a century stand opening between Sophia Dunkley and Maia Bouchier, where she also took one catch. She performed two stumpings on Sunday, one from a Ryana MacDonald-Gay bouncer to remove Rebecca Stokell, and had a few other tidy moments.

There isn't much to separate Capsey and Jones in the batting department. Capsey, who at 22 is 11 years Jones's junior, averages 21.03 in T20Is with a strike rate of 121.87 compared to Jones with 20.2 and 121.98.

Charlie Dean - again standing in as captain for Nat Sciver-Brunt, who continues to manage her recovery from a calf injury suffered at the start of the summer - was also impressed by Capsey's performance behind the stumps.

"I thought she looked like she keeps every other week," Dean said. "She was pretty tidy for us and didn't look too out of her comfort zone at all, which I was really impressed by.

"She's a huge talent. It seems like she can do everything. She, I think, was a bit nervous coming into the series, as would be expected, but she's done a really good job for us."

Meanwhile, a heavy defeat at the hands of India in the Test highlighted England's shortcomings ahead of next year's Ashes, chiefly a lack of red-ball preparation."I'm really happy with where the team's at. It's been a good summer. We've seen some real highlights. We've seen some lowlights as well. But overall, I'm really happy coming out of the summer and I feel there's been some big improvements made"Charlotte Edwards

Granted, the India match came just five days after the T20 World Cup final. But Edwards wasn't using that as an excuse and she will push for players to play in intra-squad red-ball games over some white-ball matches for their counties early next season.

"The biggest thing for me has been our Test cricket," Edwards said. "That was a really tough four days off the back of a World Cup and we had no preparation going into that. That's not making an excuse, that's just fact. But what I know is that we need to really upskill in that area.

"We've got a massive Ashes series next summer with the Test match being the first game of that. So there will be a real focus on our red-ball cricket come December, January, February and leading into our English summer.

"Expect potentially some of the players to be removed from county cricket. I'll put that out there now because we've got a few best v best [planned]. But to give ourselves the best chance of performing in that Test match we have to play more of it and that's certainly going to be our plan."

And Edwards suggested she would press for counties to play some longer, red-ball matches.

"There's so much to learn from it," she added. "It doesn't have to be an eight-, ten-match series. Even playing two or three games throughout an English summer will only benefit us as an England team and I think them as cricketers. There's so much we can gain from playing four-day cricket."The first women's Test at Lord's did not go England's way•ECB via Getty Images

Even with some off-season red-ball preparation on the blueprint, the February Champions Trophy will maintain attention on T20 cricket.

With the tournament recently moved from Sri Lanka to India, Edwards remained hopeful that England's planned tour of Sri Lanka in the lead-up would go ahead, and she said there were plenty more positives to emerge from this summer.

Allrounders Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson, who re-established themselves quite seamlessly after long layoffs with back injuries, Dean's leadership and Dunkley's resilience in a challenging season were high on her list.

Dunkley was named Player of the Series against Ireland having topped the run-scorers list with a half-century in the opening game and a run-a-ball 119 in the third, her career-best score.

Dunkley played just three games at the T20 World Cup, scoring 57 off 37 balls in a Player-of-the-Match performance against Scotland in her first stint replacing Sciver-Brunt after she re-injured her calf at the tournament. Dunkley also scored an unbeaten 49 against New Zealand before making way for Sciver-Brunt in the semi-final and final. Having not played an ODI since last year's World Cup, when she batted in the middle order, she looked in good form on her return.

"I'm really happy with where the team's at," Edwards said. "It's been a good summer. We've seen some real highlights. We've seen some lowlights as well. But overall, I'm really happy coming out of the summer and I feel there's been some big improvements made.

"We came into this series with the intention and the goal of beating Ireland 3-0 and we've done that. We've managed to develop a few players and give some opportunities throughout that so it feels like a really, really positive end to the summer."

In the Ireland series, Issy Wong was impressive with a five-wicket haul in the second fixture after warming the bench throughout the T20 World Cup.

She and England will face sterner contests next year and, while a batting collapse in which the hosts lost five wickets for 31 runs in 6.1 overs in the final match against Ireland was concerning, Edwards' willingness to try new things illustrates her desire to deepen her options. Against the likes of India and Australia over the coming year, she will need that.