Former England captain Nasser Hussain wants “no mental baggage” from England when they take on Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup final.
England beat South Africa by 40 runs at the Oval on Thursday to reach their first T20 World Cup final in eight years.
The showpiece sees them take on Australia at 3.30pm BST on Sunday, July 5 at Lord’s.
Both sides have won all six of their matches during the tournament, but Australia are seen as the favourites to win it and recently beat England in a warm-up match in Cardiff.
Mind games
Speaking on Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain said: “The first thing is the mind games with themselves.
“Do they really believe they can beat Australia? That is the first hurdle to get over.
“No mental baggage, no scarring. It needs to be, ‘we are a new England, under a new coach, we are coming at you, Australia’.”
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Tough opposition
Hussain then spoke about the strong Australia side that England would be facing, who have won the T20 World Cup six times and beat England 16-0 in the 2025 Ashes.
He said: “I don’t see many weaknesses in that Australia side, to be honest, and their biggest strength is a long batting line-up that keeps coming at you.
“The only thing is that maybe sometimes, because they have such a long batting line-up, they occasionally may think, ‘I can leave it to the next batter, then the next batter’ – and then all of a sudden they find themselves in a bit of trouble.
“In a one-off final at Lord’s, with a massive home crowd behind them, can England beat Australia? Of course they can.
“But Australia are favourites.”
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