Former England women's cricket team captain Charlotte Edwards believes the side is preparing in earnest for the upcoming ODI World Cup despite suffering back-to-back reverses against India in the recently-concluded multi-format series at home.
Edwards, one of the most successful England captains who led her side to a grand double in ICC events in 2009 by winning the 50-over and T20 World Cups, is currently the coach of the national side, and feels her team can beat any opposition in the world.
"We were massively challenged (against India) and that's how we want women's cricket to be," Edwards was quoted as saying on the BBC Stumped podcast.
India Women, under Harmanpreet Kaur, had achieved historic success in the recently-concluded multi-format series in England, defeating the home team in both the T20I and ODI series for the first time.
India's path-breaking win was widely celebrated with experts predicting Harmanpreet's side could break the jinx of not winning a World Cup trophy in the showpiece event, to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka in September-October this year.
"It wasn't a reality check. We know we can beat India. We are going into a World Cup where we know if we play our best, we can beat any team," said Edwards.
Edwards, who has been only six months into the coaching assignment with the national team, added they were working hard to get rid of the tag of being a poor fielding side.
"It is something we are working on, we know we have that tag now. Sometimes I get frustrated because we can drop one catch and we are labelled a bad fielding team, even though we have fielded really well otherwise," opined Edwards.
Edwards started off her tenure as England coach with grand success against the West Indies at home by winning all six matches of the white-ball series. But the side was brought down to earth by India a couple of months later, partly due to its poor fielding.
"I am confident we can get to a place where people are talking really positively about our fielding," she said.
Edwards also said her captain Nat Sciver-Brunt and spinner Sophie Ecclestone were in "good shape" ahead of the World Cup. Both the players are currently holding the No.1 spot on the ICC Women's ODI Player Rankings.
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