England seam bowler Lauren Bell set to line-up alongside exciting pace options Lauren Filer and 17-year-old Mahika Gaur in India; England play three IT20s in Mumbai, starting on December 6, before one-off, four-day Test from December 14.
Friday 1 December 2023 12:44, UK
England bowler Lauren Bell believes their best is yet to come as they look to build on two famous series victories over Australia in the summer.
A first tour to India since 2019 awaits Bell and her team-mates as they step up preparations for next year's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Despite narrowly failing to regain the Ashes earlier this year, England beat the world champions in both the T20 and ODI legs of the multi-format series to draw 8-8 overall in a contest England captain Heather Knight labelled "the best series there's ever been in the history of the women's game."
In front of record crowds, England stood toe-to-toe with one of the most dominant teams in recent sporting history and won four of their last five matches against Australia.
Now they turn their attention to one of cricket's greatest challenges, winning in India.
Bell is likely to be a key part of England's attack across three T20s and a Test match and is confident they can continue to improve quickly.
"I think obviously the summer was unbelievable and we actually achieved more than we thought we could at the start," Bell told Sky Sports.
"Maybe we took ourselves by surprise, but it was amazing and now obviously our focus has shifted to a T20 World Cup and the next Ashes series.
"The next 12 months is a building process.
"I think that's the start of what this team can do. It shows how far we've come in a short space of time, but I think it was only the beginning.
"We still made a lot of mistakes and got a lot of things we can still work on, but it's a very exciting group to be part of and lots of players just at the start of their international career.
"We obviously didn't know if we could beat Australia at the start because we hadn't done it in quite a while. We didn't win the Test match, but at the end of it we all had the feeling we could definitely beat them and the ongoing message was once we beat them, we can go on and keep beating them.
"Obviously that's what we managed to do for a period of time and that's given us a lot of belief and a lot of confidence I guess."
Whilst spin is likely to play a huge part for India, with world number one bowler Sophie Ecclestone back in both squads after successful shoulder surgery, England's attack features exciting pace options including Lauren Filer, 22, and 17-year-old Mahika Gaur.
Despite also being just 22 herself, Bell has already made 22 international appearances across all formats and is relishing being part of a bowling group that has wicket-taking at the forefront of their plans.
"I feel like every time I have the ball in my hand, my goal will be to take wickets," Bell said.
"Especially in a Test match, I don't think I'll ever have the ball in my hand and not be thinking about how I'm going to get my next wicket.
"I've got Crossy (Kate Cross) who is the pinnacle of the attack now, she's got a lot of knowledge and experience for me.
"But I guess in the T20 squad, I'm one of the leading seamers now which is quite scary, but quite exciting and I guess it says a lot about the last 12 months playing for England. Hopefully going forward, I want more of that responsibility and more of that role.
"We don't just want a couple of us, we want to be challenged. In places like India, we're going to need back up bowlers, we're going to need that depth and in the years to come Mahika's going to get older, I'm going to get more experienced, Wongy (Issy Wong) she's worked so hard, she'll come back.
"She's in India now and looks like she's bowling really well and fast bowling in England is in a really good place."
Next year's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh will be the first global event in the sub-continent since the 50-over World Cup in 2016 when West Indies won their only major women's title in India, but England will hope to be serious contenders next September and October.
But there are perhaps areas to improve on in the meantime, England's batting ability against spin was questioned particularly when Ash Gardner dominated the Ashes Test match at Trent Bridge with match figures of 12-187 and during a shock first T20 series defeat to Sri Lanka in September.
The heat will also undoubtedly play a part in Mumbai and Bell, who was part of the UP Warriorz squad in the first Women's Premier League, is keen to improve in these conditions whilst enjoying India's huge passion for cricket.
"For the T20 prep it's pretty exciting," she said. "The conditions will be similar to when we're in Bangladesh so that's good and it's probably the first time since the Ashes we've got our best squad back together and playing T20 cricket.
"But also India is massive for cricket and it's a good chance to show up on that stage and have that much support in and play in front of good crowds.
"It's crazy, they're (India) a big part of the success of cricket and it's so cool playing a T20 in front of a crowd like that, obviously I didn't play in the WPL, but I'm pretty excited for it.
"We're pretty aware of how physically demanding it'll be out there, we saw that for the men's World Cup so we're working really hard in Oman and hopefully we'll be prepped as well as we can be."
Follow England women's tour of India across Sky Sports' digital platforms from Wednesday December 6.
