Tammy Beaumont's warning: Write England off at your peril

The England opener has backed her side to retain their title despite being away from home, fielding a squad many believe to lack experience, and the dominance of Australia

Tammy Beaumont has her eyes set on back-to-back Cricket World Cup titles and has warned the rest of the competition to "write England off at your peril."

Despite being the defending champions, England are not the favourites to lift the title in New Zealand. That tag, instead, has been awarded to Australia, who have lost just one ODI since the beginning of 2018 and recently humbled England 12-4 in Ashes, including a 3-0 victory in the ODI leg of the series.

Beaumont, however, has complete faith in herself and her teammates to repeat 2017’s title success, despite being away from home and fielding a squad many perceive to lack experience.

"I feel like a lot of people have already written us off," she said. "We had a lot of people trying to call us favourites last time and you know, we’re still the holders of the World Cup. I think write us off at your peril.

"For me, it would be a massive achievement, particularly to go back-to-back. Away from home is always difficult but the conditions in New Zealand are quite similar to home, so actually it’s a nice one to try and go back-to-back on.

"Winning a World Cup at any time is an achievement, but particularly when we’ve gone through Covid, the bubbles, restrictions and all that stuff for two years, to come out here and hopefully perform really well would be a testament to the team."

^{Beaumont was a member of England's 2017 World Cup-winning squad [Stu Forster/Getty Images]}

Rubbishing concerns about the lack of experience in England’s 15-strong squad compared to 2017, she continued: "I looked around the other day and Sophie Ecclestone has played 50 games, Amy Jones has played 50 games, Kate Cross has been a regular first-change bowler for a number of years.

"There’s a good blend of youth with the likes of Deano [Charlie Dean] and Emma Lamb but there’s still a lot of experience. I feel pretty good about it."

England are scheduled to face favourites Australia in their tournament opener on March 5 and will head into the clash in much brighter spirits than when they last faced Meg Lanning’s after recording two dominant wins in their warm-up matches.

Against South Africa, England’s bowlers shone, restricting the Proteas to just 138 for 9 to tee-up a routine six-wicket victory. However, their 109-run demolition of Bangladesh 48 hours earlier will arguably have been the more pleasing of the two results for Lisa Keightley as several England batters made welcome returns to form.

Lauren Winfield-Hill scored a much-needed half-century at the top of the order, blasting 55 runs from 43 balls, Nat Sciver scored a century and there were useful contributions from Beaumont, Jones and Heather Knight too.

And Beaumont, who was the leading run-scorer in 2017, believes the responsibility for England’s recent dip in form with the bat lies as much with herself and Winfield-Hill at the top of the order as the rest of the team.

"We had a lot of people trying to call us favourites last time and you know, we’re still the holders of the World Cup. I think write us off at your peril"

"I didn’t have the best series with the bat in the Ashes," she said. "We’ve had some really good chats about not necessarily just what we need to do but how we need to do it and we need to get back to playing quite aggressive cricket and taking the game on.

"I think you saw today [against South Africa] Lauren really go for it up front and it’s easier for the others to follow in and the middle order to get stuck in when they’re not behind the eight-ball. I think in the Ashes, we as a top order were putting an incredible amount of pressure on the middle order to mop up the mess we had made.

"I don’t think the problem has just been with the middle order, I think everyone’s got to take accountability. But today is another step in the right direction."

And as for beginning their title defence against the favourites, Beaumont isn't placing too much pressure on that one match: "You’ve got to play everyone at some point. We played India in the first game of the last World Cup and lost, and it didn’t necessarily impact us.

"We’ll take on Australia, I think on our day we can beat them, and I think we’re in a good place at the moment to go into that game, regardless of the Ashes. I don’t think one game is necessarily going to ruin your World Cup hopes. We’re ready to go against them."

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