As The Blaze's very own Nat Sciver-Brunt prepares to captain England into a home T20 World Cup, she writes exclusively for the Trent Bridge website.
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As the captain of the England team, the host nation, there is a real mixture of pride and excitement that we’re about to get underway with the biggest Women’s T20 World Cup ever, and we have a squad who have a real chance of doing something incredibly special.
From the moment I was made captain of the side last year, I knew this tournament would be something to look forward to and to be ready for.
Admittedly my own personal preparations have had a slight hiccup with a calf injury keeping me on the sidelines until this week, but having played in two warm up games and enjoyed that familiar feeling of bat on ball out in the middle, I can’t wait to get out there and do the best I can in the tournament proper.
This will be such an incredible event to be a part of, and will showcase women’s cricket to the world in a way that cricket fans, sports fans, and hopefully the general public won’t be able to resist.
Just watching the way our squad have been delivering their skills so far this summer, tells me the standards are going to be exceptionally high throughout the next few weeks.
I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of one World Cup success on home soil back in 2017, so I know just how brilliant it would be if we could repeat the trick in the 20 over format as well.
The chance to represent your country in a World Cup at home where your friends and family can come and watch and support you is one of the best things you can do in your career, so I will be soaking it all up over the course of the tournament.
Of course I’m a little disappointed not to be able to run out at Trent Bridge for a game, as I know how much support we would get from The Blaze and Nottinghamshire fans.
I do hope that many of our Trent Bridge faithful will be taking the chance to get along to Edgbaston or Headingley instead to come and cheer us on. It will be great to see you in the crowd, as we are all England fans, no matter what the ground.
If we do manage to fulfil our aim and ambition for the tournament by winning that beautiful silver trophy then I will look forward to being able to bring it back and show it off to as many of you as possible.
In order for that to happen though, we are going to have to step up and deliver as a team and I have total faith in every single member of our squad.
Things have come to the boil nicely over the past few weeks with T20 series wins over New Zealand and India which was a great opportunity for us to put into practice some of the work we’ve been doing over months in the winter on training camps and squad get togethers at the start of the season.
Our coach Charlotte Edwards has been the driving force behind our planning and preparation for this summer and it has been great to work alongside her as captain.
She has wonderfully high standards and we’ve all enjoyed putting in the effort to meet them. That’s something we’ve done together as a team. Pushing each other, competing for places, but also supporting each other as well to produce the very best we can for the team.
That is why I’m so proud to lead this side, and why I’m so excited about getting out there and trying to win another World Cup.
I hope our fans get to feel the same way too.
Nat Sciver-Brunt