Kate Cross is hoping “the queen of English cricket” can take the nation back to the pinnacle of the international game as they step up their World Cup preparations. Charlotte Edwards, who captained England to 50-over and T20 World Cup glory in 2009, replaced Jon Lewis as head coach in April and has just a few months to mould her team before the 2025 edition of the former competition in India and Sri Lanka. Edwards will send her side into the first of three one-day internationals against India in Southampton on Wednesday on the back of 3-2 T20 series defeat by the same opposition, with Cross confident her inspirational former captain can make a significant impact. The Lancashire pace bowler said: “She is the queen of English cricket, isn’t she? “I spoke in a press conference months ago about how Lottie was the captain that gave me my debut cap, so it’s kind of like a full-circle moment for me where one of the best English cricketers to play the game is now leading the team. “She’s so passionate about English cricket and so passionate about women’s cricket. She’s the biggest badger I know – she’s literally watched every ball that you bowl or every ball that you face, she’s really on it. She’s got about seven laptops, I think, to watch all the Blast games. “But her knowledge around the game is just phenomenal, so I think we feel really lucky that we’ve had a coach with that sort of experience, but also with the career that she had in the game, come in to help guide us and make us a better team, so it’s been brilliant.” Edwards has work to do as she attempts to restore England’s fortunes after a difficult year which has included a 16-0 Ashes whitewash, and she has vowed to make fitness one of the key elements of her regime. However, Cross revealed she has set about her task with a smile on her face. She said: “She’s not just not changed at all. She’s still the same Lottie that was my captain eight or nine years ago, so it’s been really lovely for me personally to have her around. “She’s just great fun as well. She’s always chuckling and making you laugh, which is a really nice place to be in an international dressing room.” On the pitch, Nat Sciver-Brunt’s side are still getting to grips with Edwards’ philosophy, and Cross insists they need time to do that as they attempt to eradicate the failings which have cost them so dearly in recent times. She said: “It’s difficult. I know we’re getting still quite a lot of press around our fielding. It’s not where we want it to be and we know there’s been some mistakes made in key moments. “But hopefully if we can be judged in six months’, eight months’, 12 months’ time when the new regime has had a chance to kind of bed in, then hopefully those comments that are made will be… not fairer, because I think the comments that were being made are quite fair at the moment. “But you’ll only then see the changes which will fit with the new regime that Lottie wants to bring in.”