Boss Lewis '100% disagrees' England not fit enough

Jon Lewis' England lost just one game at the T20 World Cup in October, but were eliminated on net run-rate in the group stage

England head coach Jon Lewis has rejected accusations some of his players are not fit enough following their disappointing Women's T20 World Cup exit last month.

England, who were among the favourites to win the competition, failed to reach the semi-finals in the United Arab Emirates, dropping five catches in a defeat by West Indies that condemned them to a first group-stage exit since 2010.

Following elimination, ex-England spinner Alex Hartley told Test Match Special that "there are girls in that side who are letting the team down when it comes to fitness".

"I 100% don't agree with that as a statement," said Lewis. "We're trending in the right direction around our physical fitness.

"We've made lots of progress across the board in different parts of fitness. There's loads of different parts of fitness: power, speed, endurance.

"Availability is another part of it and our players are available more often than not. I think we've had about 95% availability over the past six months with all our contracted players.

"I'm more than happy to talk to Alex [Hartley] about that."

Lewis, however, has told his players to have greater awareness of what they post on social media.

Several players posted pictures of their activities at the World Cup in the UAE, including boat trips between matches and other excursions, which was criticised after their group-stage exit.

"That will be a sharp learning curve for the players involved in that," said Lewis.

"What I would say is I really trust our players. They train incredibly hard, but the female game in particular is getting a lot more scrutiny than it ever got before.

"Unfortunately for the players, that's something they're going to have to think about and understand the consequence of those things, of the misconception of what they are doing and how people can misconceive a social media post.

"That's the reality of the world at the moment, when most people - not myself - live their lives on social media. Understanding the effect of that, and how that can be perceived, is really important for the players to understand."

'Resilient' England will respond in South Africa

England's next assignment is a multi-format tour of South Africa, which begins later this month.

They begin with a three-match T20 series, which kicks off on 24 November, before three one-day internationals and a one-off Test.

Lewis believes the trip to South Africa is ideal preparation for the Women's Ashes series in Australia, which begins on 11 January, and hopes to see a "real response from the T20 team in particular".

"There will be some real strong group reflection when we get to South Africa," added Lewis, 49. "I know this team is resilient and will respond.

"What I would like us to do is to go back to how we were playing last summer against the Australians, how fearless we were.

"I felt like we became a little safer at times in our decision making around the skills that we were going to use and when we were going to use the skills."