Charlotte Edwards ready to take England back to No1 spot

Charlotte Edwards is confident her England team can take the first steps towards regaining their position as the best in the world in a hectic series of Twenty20 and one-day matches that begin in Chelmsford on Thursday. That crown slipped as they lost the Ashes for the first time in six years with a defeat at Sydney's Bankstown Oval in January, following their failure to reach the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean last year. But Edwards believes the return of a number of key players will trigger a resurgence in separate NatWest quadrangular series of T20 and 50-over matches against Australia, New Zealand and India over the next month. "I don't think what happened over the winter will have any bearing on what's coming up," said the 31-year-old from Cambridgeshire, who did her best to avert Ashes defeat in Sydney with an unbeaten century in a total of 207. "We're a completely different team now with a few people back who were unavailable for various reasons, whereas other teams like Australia have lost a couple." Australia's highest-profile absentee will be Ellyse Perry, the 20-year-old who has swapped cricket for football to join the Matildas squad preparing for the World Cup in Germany. Edwards admits that women's cricket remains some way behind football in being able to sustain a professional set-up, which is one reason why players such as Sarah Taylor and Arran Brindle have taken breaks from the game. "We've got seven or eight of the England team on Chance to Shine contracts, which aren't exactly full-time because we have to coach as well as play, but I think they're as professional as we're going to get for a while," she said. Taylor, the 22-year-old Sussex wicketkeeper, was sorely missed in Australia especially after her namesake Claire, another key figure, suffered a shoulder injury that ruled her out of the Sydney defeat. Both will be back for the opening T20 game against New Zealand along with Brindle, who has been missing from the international set-up since 2005, when she stepped away shortly after hitting the winning runs as England regained the Ashes. Since then the 29-year-old Yorkshirewoman has had a baby – Harry, who is now three – and pursued a career as a design technology teacher in Lincolnshire, where she also plays regularly for Louth in the county league, captaining her husband James and making more history last month by scoring a century, the first woman ever to do so in premier men's club cricket. "It's great to have Arran back," Edwards said. "She's been out for a long time and she's really determined to come back and perform at this level, and having the three lions back on her shirt." After the opener against New Zealand at a Chelmsford ground where England have a good record, the tournament hosts face Australia in Bristol on Saturday before the men's T20 international against Sri Lanka. Their last qualifier is against India in Taunton on Sunday, with the final at the Rose Bowl the following day. The 50-over tournament then follows quickly with games at Chesterfield a week on Thursday, Derby and Lord's, but Edwards has no complaints about the schedule. "It's going to be a tough period but it's worth it for the exposure we get through Sky which is really important for the women's game," she said.