Ashes 2023: England's Lauren Winfield-Hill is expecting a 'red-hot contest'
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Lauren Winfield-Hill's performances in The Hundred led to a return to the England squad after 10 months out
England batter Lauren Winfield-Hill is expecting a "red-hot contest" in this summer's Ashes series.
The multi-format series starts with a five-day Test match on 22 June, followed by three one-day internationals and three T20s.
Strong domestic performances saw Winfield-Hill, 32, return to the England side in December 2022 after a 10-month absence.
"There's certainly a belief we can win," Winfield-Hill told BBC Sport.
"Obviously Australia are favourites. But what we have is a lovely blend of senior players and youth.
"We have seen a lot more over the last couple of years that Australia have scars too. They can wobble, they can be fractured."
Australia currently hold both the 50-over and T20 world titles, the Commonwealth Games title and are unbeaten in four Ashes series.
Most recently, they won the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February, where England lost to the hosts in the semi-final.
But Winfield-Hill is confident England are closing the gap between the two sides.
"It's just about us being able to match them for longer and being able to hold on to that pressure just a fraction longer," she said.
"I don't think there has been as much between the two teams as what the outcomes and the results often suggest.
"It's not the whole game that we need to change - it's just if we can just get on the right side of a couple of key moments. We've got to believe that we don't have to do anything different, or go way beyond anything we've done before."
Winfield-Hill had a difficult personal start to 2022. Her struggle for runs in England's Ashes defeat in Australia and the World Cup that followed led to her omission from the side.
But she played a starring role in Oval Invincibles' title defence in The Hundred and Northern Diamonds' victory in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy to earn a recall for England's white-ball series against West Indies in December and the T20 World Cup which followed.
After another impressive start for the Diamonds this season, with 220 runs in five innings, Winfield-Hill is likely to be named in Jon Lewis' Ashes squad, and is expecting a competitive series with the added prospect of a five-day Test, as opposed to the previous length of four days.
"We don't play a lot of Test matches, but a lot of the Tests that we have played have come down to the wire at times, and it has always felt a day short to force a result," said Winfield-Hill, whose last Test came against Australia in January 2022.
"It feels like just as it starts to get exciting, it's the end of day four and you shake hands at a draw. So I definitely think that extra day will create a result, which is exciting either way, and I think it will be a real red-hot contest because we've got to go toe-to-toe with them for another day.
"And we'll see a better opportunity to set up the game with more tactical input, whether that is batting or bowling first, because quite often with four days, it feels like you are setting something up but you never really get to see the fruits of that."
Ashes fixtures 2023
Test match: 22-26 June, Trent Bridge
First T20: 1 July, Edgbaston
Second T20: 5 July, The Oval
Third T20: 8 July, Lord's
First ODI: 12 July, Bristol
Second ODI: 16 July, Ageas Bowl
Third ODI: 18 July, Taunton