Women’s World Cup 2025: England beaten by Pakistan

England travel to Indore for their next matches against their toughest rivals India on Sunday and Australia on October 22.

None of the ideal opponents to face have batting weaknesses to address but the pitches there are expected to be flatter and friendlier to batters.

It was Knight’s courageous determination that saved them against Bangladesh, and the Sciver-Brent side secured the aggregate win against Sri Lanka, but when both fell early to Pakistan, England were unable to recover.

“Nat Sciver-Brent and Heather Knight have scored more points between them than their teammates combined in this tournament,” World Cup winner Alex Hartley said on the BBC Match Test special.

“That’s saying something in itself, neither of them hit in the first game. That’s a concern.”

Beaumont and Jones struggled against the swinging ball – stands six, 24 and 13 after chasing just 70 in the opener against South Africa – but Charlotte Edwards’ first move was to show faith and re-promote Jones, and she is unlikely to disrupt the duo.

After Sciver-Brunt and Knight, England’s second-highest batsman was Charlie Dean, with 27 not out in a tense chase against Bangladesh, 19 in hand against Sri Lanka, and top-scoring with 33 against Pakistan.

There were glimpses of promise from Alice Capesey at seven, but Sophia Dunkley and Emma Lamb struggled to start their innings against spin in the middle order.

Lamb has 18 runs in three innings while Dunkley has 29, each dismissal being a spin, with the former being asked to play an unfamiliar role.

Batting in the top three in domestic and international cricket, Lamb averages 44 in 61 innings over five centuries. These three innings here are the first I’ve ever played at number six professionally in the 50-over format.

Danny White-Hodge is an unused England batsman off the bench, and has played in the middle order for a number of years, so it will be interesting to see how long Lamb’s experiment lasts.

England may have avoided an embarrassing mistake here, but they will know things won’t get any easier.

India and Australia are waiting. Any wobble against these two and England’s campaign could quickly unravel.