Daily Times

England head coach Jon Lewis has rejected accusations some of his players are not fit enough following their disappointing Women’s T20 World Cup exit last month.

England, who were among the favourites to win the competition, failed to reach the semi-finals in the United Arab Emirates, dropping five catches in a defeat by West Indies that condemned them to a first group-stage exit since 2010.

Following elimination, ex-England spinner Alex Hartley told Test Match Special that “there are girls in that side who are letting the team down when it comes to fitness”.

“I 100% don’t agree with that as a statement,” said Lewis. “We’re trending in the right direction around our physical fitness. “We’ve made lots of progress across the board in different parts of fitness. There’s loads of different parts of fitness: power, speed, endurance.

“Availability is another part of it and our players are available more often than not. I think we’ve had about 95% availability over the past six months with all our contracted players. “I’m more than happy to talk to Alex [Hartley] about that.”

Lewis, however, has told his players to have greater awareness of what they post on social media.

Several players posted pictures of their activities at the World Cup in the UAE, including boat trips between matches and other excursions, which was criticised after their group-stage exit.

“That will be a sharp learning curve for the players involved in that,” said Lewis.

“What I would say is I really trust our players. They train incredibly hard, but the female game in particular is getting a lot more scrutiny than it ever got before.

“Unfortunately for the players, that’s something they’re going to have to think about and understand the consequence of those things, of the misconception of what they are doing and how people can misconceive a social media post.a
“That’s the reality of the world at the moment, when most people – not myself – live their lives on social media. Understanding the effect of that, and how that can be perceived, is really important for the players to understand.”