Alice Capsey started the summer with a plan and, had she not managed to execute it so well, she might not have now been playing such a crucial role in England's T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.
After 11 innings in 20 months without scoring a half-century in T20Is, Capsey and Charlotte Edwards, the England head coach, had "a really honest conversation" about where Capsey's game was at.
With no international matches scheduled between England's 50-over World Cup semi-final exit last October and their ODI series with New Zealand in May, Capsey had more than six months to work with the coaching staff on what they had discussed.
"This winter was a brilliant opportunity to go away and marry up some of my ideas with some of their ideas," Capsey said. "We had three camps throughout January, February, March, so that was a brilliant opportunity to work with our batting coach and also bowling and fielding, all aspects of the game, and have that time to myself where I could go away and spend a bit of time improving.
"My game through the offside, and then playing spin, different ideas, different plans and things like that, which I feel like there probably has been quite a big shift in being able to trust those things. The amazing thing was that we were able to put a plan in place.
"Throughout the summer I've been able to put that together. It's always nice to see - as someone who's always looking to improve and probably not had the form that I'd have liked over the last three years and accepting that a little bit and going away and trying to put a few wrongs right."
Capsey's first T20I innings in 10 months was her best to that point, an unbeaten 74 opening the batting against New Zealand while Danni Wyatt-Hodge, England's in-form opener at this World Cup, was on maternity leave. She topped that within a fortnight with 82 from No. 4 against India and she has settled in that position nicely at this World Cup. Not required to bat in England's opening-night victory over Sri Lanka which came at the cost of just one wicket and was built on Wyatt-Hodge's century. Scores of 5, 28 and 40 since have Capsey feeling good about her game.
"I feel in a better place," she said. "My batting feels in a better place, and I feel like I'm being able to execute better plans. I still think there's a lot of growing that I can do and there's a lot of growing that I want to do. At the minute it's a massive focus on just contributing to games of cricket for England and winning this World Cup.
"Throughout the winter, the main goal was to get selected in the squad. Once you achieve that, it's then about pushing your case to getting into the XI. I've been really happy with the way I've been able to contribute."
England are still without captain and No. 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is training but needs more time to recover from a recurrence of a calf muscle injury during their second game. It is the same problem which kept her out of all of England's competitive lead-up games, although she launched her comeback in style with a half-century against India in their warm-up match before scores of 46 not out and 48 when she retired hurt against Ireland.
Sophia Dunkley, who had been struggling for form ahead of the tournament, stepped in with a half-century against Scotland and 14 in their last match, against West Indies, where Wyatt-Hodge shone again with a 42-ball 65, including a 66-run stand for the third wicket off 50 balls with Capsey.
"What's been brilliant for me is being back up at the top of the order," Capsey said. "Starting my career at three and then over the last couple of years I've been here, there, and everywhere. To have that backing and to have some really valuable conversations with Lottie [Edwards] around how I go about my game, how that then best fits into scoring runs for England, winning games of cricket for England. What I've found over the last six to 12 months is a blueprint of how I want to go about things. I'm starting to feel really comfortable at being able to implement my blueprint into that No. 4 role.
"There's so many different situations that you can come in with and that's what I've been enjoying most about No. 4. That's probably been one of my biggest shifts in my game, that out-of-powerplay stuff, and I feel like I'm really starting to find my feet."
England's 38-run win over West Indies assured the hosts of a place in the semi-finals. Now they are intent on defeating reigning champions New Zealand in their last group game to guarantee finishing at the top of Group 2.