'Australia are favourites' - Nasser Hussain highlights monumental task ahead of England at Women's T20 World Cup final

Former men's captain Nasser Hussain wants England Women to go into the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup final against Australia Women with their heads held high and not fearing the opposition. This comes after the hosts defeated South Africa Women in the semi-final to book a place in the showpiece match on Sunday, July 5 at Lord's Cricket Ground.

England have faced Australia thrice in previous T20 World Cup finals, losing them all. Their most recent defeat came in 2018, when they lost to their arch-rivals by eight wickets in Antigua after being dismissed for just 105 in the first innings.

Ahead of their fourth T20 World Cup final meeting, Hussain advised England not to carry any mental burden and strive to go toe-to-toe against Australia, despite the opponents having no major weaknesses to exploit.

"The first thing is the mind games with themselves. Do they really believe they can beat Australia? That is the first hurdle to get over. No mental baggage, no scarring. It needs to be, 'we are a new England, under a new coach, we are coming at you, Australia'. I don't see many weaknesses in that Australia side, to be honest, and their biggest strength is a long batting line-up that keeps coming at you," Nasser Hussain said on Sky Sports.

Despite having a long batting order, Hussain does believe that teams could get complacent in such situations, something England could expose in the final. The Lionesses will also have home advantage support, something they will need to capitalise on, knowing Australia will come into the final as favourites.

"The only thing is that maybe sometimes because they have such a long batting line-up they occasionally may think, 'I can leave it to the next batter, then the next batter' and then all of a sudden they find themselves in a bit of trouble. In a one-off final at Lord's, with a massive home crowd behind them, can England beat Australia? Of course they can. But Australia are favourites," he added.

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Australia come into the final on the back of an unbeaten run in the group stage, similar to England. They then got the better of the West Indies in the semi-final, beating them by eight wickets.