Katherine Sciver-Brunt could be swayed into retirement u-turn by England's new bold approach

Having officially retired from Test cricket and quietly slipped away from ODIs last year, Barnsley-born Sciver-Brunt had planned to end her England career after this month’s T20 World Cup.

The 37-year-old still might do so should England go all the way in South Africa but if not, she intends to stay on top of her fitness for T20 franchise opportunities due to the pull of this summer’s Ashes.

Adding to her uncertainty is how reinvigorated she has felt under a fresher, more attacking approach ushered in by Lewis, appointed England head coach last November.

“If I stop now I’d be happy but lots of things happen in short spaces of time sometimes and Jon Lewis coming in has just reignited some stuff and the environment’s amazing,” she said.

“I can see the future these girls have got and I’m jealous, I’m not going to lie, the things that are happening are extremely positive.

"Where I was clear five months ago, now I’m unclear.

“If we won the World Cup that could be a really good time to stop and five months ago I had promised everyone that’s what I would do. But if we don’t win then the Ashes are two seconds away.

“I would still be bowling and still be fit. It’s not something I can say ‘no’ to just yet. I can pretty much say the international side of things is probably this year.”

Sciver-Brunt is set to make her 263rd international appearance when England begin their T20 World Cup campaign against West Indies at Paarl on Saturday.

England clean swept an understrength Windies in three ODIs and five T20s in December, marking the start of a sea change in their perspective as they looked to get on the front foot against their opponents.

“It’s certainly the one that if it goes right, if it’s your day, we’ll beat anyone,” said Sciver-Brunt, who learned the game in Yorkshire.

“If it goes wrong then it can go really wrong. It’s exciting but it’s also quite scary as well. No one wants to get thrashed but as long as you live and die by the sword you can live and accept losing.

“It’s the being able to fail that is the bit that makes you better because if you’re so worried about losing your wicket you will get 50-ball fifties but you won’t get 30-ball fifties and that’s the difference between moving forward and standing still. We are 100 per cent committed to it.”

Sciver-Brunt, who was integral in England’s 50-over World Cup wins in 2009 and 2017, bowed out of Test cricket last year while she recently announced she will stop playing regional and county cricket with Northern Diamonds.

Accepting she will not be around for the next 50-over World Cup, scheduled to take place in India in 2025, Sciver-Brunt does not want to stand in the way of someone else staking a claim for England.

While she has not officially retired from ODIs, Sciver-Brunt, who hopes to play in the inaugural Women’s Premier League this year and has entered next week’s auction at the top base price, is ostensibly a T20 specialist.

“I want it to be about ‘I’m still here, I’m still performing at my best’ and when I finish, I finish, and I finish everything,” she added.

“I didn’t want to have to retire from something again before I stopped playing because the emphasis becomes on retiring from the game altogether.

“I am a T20 player and that’s given me more longevity to my career and opened up other avenues. I’m just trying to live every day as it comes and enjoy what time I have left as a cricketer.”

Another Jon Lewis, the former Essex and Durham batter, has been appointed as the new head coach of the Trent Rockets women’s side in The Hundred. The 52-year-old, edged out for the head coach position with the England women’s team by namesake Jon Lewis last November, was part of the Rockets backroom staff last summer.

Salliann Beams led the Trent Bridge-based side, which included Sciver-Brunt, to a third-place finish in 2022 but elected against extending her stay in Nottingham into a third year. Lewis, formerly a batting specialist with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh men’s sides who won the One-Day Cup as Durham head coach in 2014, said: “The opportunity to step up is a huge honour.

“The competition is hugely exciting because it is giving the women’s game a brilliant platform and players a bigger stage on which to showcase their skills.

“Obviously, the aim for us as a team will be to win the competition, which I believe is possible with the core squad we’re working to retain before deadline day, and those we recruit in the draft.”

Elsewhere, Jamie Smith clubbed eight sixes as he smashed the record for the fastest century by an England Lions batter off just 71 balls against Sri Lanka A at Galle.