Issy Wong’s woes put a dent within the optimism of England youth coverage

England had come into the competition brimful of optimism after an emphatic victory within the sequence opener at Hove on Thursday. However, confronted with a sensational captain’s efficiency from Chamari Athapaththu, they have been this time routed for 104 in 18 overs, then clubbed to defeat with a large 40 balls to spare. Athapaththu herself led from the entrance with 55 from 40 balls, as Sri Lanka secured a well-known maiden T20I victory over England on the tenth time of asking.

“We’ve had a bad day, we’ve lost a game of cricket,” Knight mentioned. “There’s not going to be a big inquiry about it. We haven’t played well and Sri Lanka have played very well, and given us a bit of humble pie to be honest.

“Credit to Sri Lanka, however typically that occurs in cricket,” she added. “We’ve acquired a really inexperienced facet, loads of guys are studying their commerce, and we will establish some areas we will get higher at. It’s clearly fairly a humbling day, but in addition a possibility for us to essentially house in on what we have to do higher, transferring ahead.”

England’s batting was clearly to blame for the defeat, as a succession of players succumbed to the hard lengths of Sri Lanka’s spinners – most notably the recalled Inoshi Fernando, who offered little width on a hybrid wicket and turned the screw relentlessly after a dominant powerplay.

However, it was Wong’s performance with the ball that attracted the most attention after the match. She was visibly struggling with her run-up in a grim first over that contained a wide and three front-foot no-balls, and it was something of a surprise when Knight entrusted her with a second over with Sri Lanka needing just 13 runs to win. Three driven fours later, the scores were level and Wong’s comeback figures read 2-0-24-0.

“It was a tricky day and typically, once you’re uncovered to that type of strain state of affairs, it may make it more durable, however she’s a reasonably resilient character,” Knight said. “She’s a reasonably optimistic particular person, so I do not suppose it should have an effect on her an excessive amount of.”

Nevertheless, Wong’s display – in her first international appearance since December – was an alarming one for those who recall the ebullience and optimism of her initial England performances, particularly her three-for on her ODI debut against South Africa in July 2022, when she was being earmarked as the obvious pace-bowling successor to Katherine Sciver-Brunt.

Since then, however, Wong was a notable omission from England’s T20 World Cup squad in South Africa, and this summer she has seen the likes of Lauren Filer and, latterly, Mahika Gaur leapfrog her in the pace pecking order.

And though she remains a hugely marketable asset for English cricket, as evidenced by her memorable hat-trick for Mumbai Indians in the inaugural WPL in India earlier this year, Wong’s performance in this year’s Hundred – a total of 30 balls and one wicket across five matches as Birmingham Phoenix finished rock-bottom and winless – left England, as Knight put it, “searching for a little bit of context for the place she’s at”.

“She’s been struggling somewhat bit for rhythm the entire summer season,” Knight said. “She’s been given 5 balls at a time within the Hundred. She hasn’t had an opportunity to come back again from spells, and that is in all probability put loads of strain on how she begins.

“She has been trying a few things and listening to a lot of different voices, which has probably led to her run-up issues. She didn’t really have those earlier in the summer. We know what sort of cricketer she can be, which is why we’ve backed her when she’s been struggling a little bit.”

Knight added that Wong’s subsequent step could be to work intently with Matt Mason, England girls’s bowling coach, “to get back to where we know she can be”.

“Issy’s got a clear plan over the next month about what she’s going to do. Matt Mason’s an outstanding bowling coach. We wanted to get a bit of context of where she’s at, and Issy wanted a bit of context of where she’s at as well. She had a few good sessions, and don’t regret playing her at all.”

Overall, nevertheless, Knight insisted that the teachings that Sri Lanka had meted out at Chelmsford could be priceless ones for her younger workforce, and much from exposing the constraints of an untested group of gamers, the added jeopardy of a sequence decider in Derby on Wednesday could be an additional probability to fast-track their progress.

“It wasn’t about underestimating Sri Lanka at all,” Knight mentioned. “It was about what’s best for us as a side, moving forward. We want to expose people to international cricket, we were pretty clear that that was the goal at the start of this series, and no one was [complaining] at Hove when we were smashing 180 off 17 overs, so I wouldn’t change anything.

“It’s an excellent lesson for children that, in case you’re not in a position to execute your expertise the way you need to, you are going to get punished. Unfortunately it is gone fallacious for just about everybody, so it is a unhealthy day on the workplace. But we’ll go to Derby, nonetheless seeking to play precisely how we need to play, and clearly it is a sequence decider, which is thrilling.”