England World Cup winner Lauren Winfield-Hill has said that the upcoming England Women A tour of Australia will highlight the gap in domestic competitions of the two nations.
A development side is set to arrive in Australia later this month to play six white-ball matches and a four day game against an Australia A side. While England have yet to announce their squad for the series, Australia have named three playing groups captained by Heather Graham, Nicole Faltum and Charli Knott in the T20, one-day and four day games respectively.
While the series follows England's disastrous loss in Australia, where they failed to win a single game, Winfield-Hill - speaking on the Wisden Women's Cricket Weekly podcast - stressed that the tour "doesn't feel like a crisis camp".
Winfield-Hill: 'A' tour good opportunity for exposure
"I think it's an awesome opportunity," said Winfield-Hill. "It's been a tough few months for English cricket but, ultimately, players coming through or players who have played a fair bit for England - we don't know what's going to be revealed in terms of the squad - you want contest against good players in different conditions.
"The best way to view it is a really good opportunity to play different formats, condensed in a series where there's a bit on it. It's not like it's just playing a three-day friendly game in England. Make no mistakes, there's a lot on it because of how the Ashes have gone."
The results of a review initiated after the Ashes defeat are still yet to be announced. The positions of both head coach Jon Lewis and captain Heather Knight were set to be reviewed as part of a wide-ranging process where players were consulted for feedback on why the series went wrong for England. Speaking earlier this week, fast-bowler Kate Cross stressed the importance of addressing "cultural" issues as part of the review and expressed sadness that England's performance in the Ashes "might have lost [the side] a few fans".
However, Winfield-Hill, who spent the winter playing in Australia in the WBBL as well as Australian state cricket, said the 'A' tour would also highlight the difference between domestic players in Australia compared to in England.
"We've spoken on here about where does domestic cricket lie in England vs Australia, let's have a look," said Winfield-Hill. "Ultimately that will show us where they're both at. Is there a gap, is there not a gap, where is the gap, and it will become really clear for the future what the direction is the England team need to go in.
"Some of the girls I suspect may be on that tour have probably played more international games than they have domestic. So they've been thrust into international cricket pretty rapidly, before they've worked their game out. We've spoken about it before, it's a jump up, and most of them haven't played a lot of domestic cricket, or Hundred cricket or franchise cricket before they play for England."
The tour is set to begin on March 26 at the Hurstville Oval, which will host three T20s before the series moves to Cricket Central in Sydney for the three 50-over games and four day game, which is scheduled to conclude on April 15.
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