Lanning questions women's Ashes points system

Meg Lanning, Australia's stand-in captain, has questioned the points format of the women's Ashes, suggesting that it was weighted too heavily towards the sole Test, which England won at the start of January to set up their 10-8 triumph.

Australia subsequently won both of the limited-overs series 2-1 but the six points England collected in Perth for their 61-run victory mitigated against subsequent defeats. Over the seven matches - one Test, three ODIs and three T20s - England only managed three wins but it was enough for them to retain the Ashes, which they won by a 12-4 margin during the English summer.

The limited-overs matches only offered two points to the winning team, however, Lanning suggested that be reviewed after Australia clinched the T20 series 2-1 in Sydney.

"You could fix that by giving more points to the ODIs," she said. "Perhaps two ODI victories is similar to a Test match win. I think for a Test match to be worth six points compared to the two is a lot, considering we don't play many Test matches at all.

"It's something to look into - I'm not sure what's going to happen but I'm sure other people will take care of that."

With the Ashes already secured, England lost their last two games on tour and their captain, Charlotte Edwards, admitted it was "disappointing to end the series the way we have". England also suffered from injuries, losing their two frontline quicks, Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole for the T20s, but it was the batting that let them down in Melbourne and Sydney, where they posted scores of 98 and 101.

Edwards gave her backing to the points system, having led England to only their third Ashes win in Australia. "Both teams knew what the format was and ultimately that Test win was the difference probably between the two teams," Edwards said. "I said from the word go it's going to be two evenly matched teams competing for it, and I think it showed.

"They've obviously ended the series well and I guess we won the key moments, which was the most important thing in this series."

England and Australia are the only women's teams that currently compete in Test matches and, earlier in the series, Australia batsman Sarah Elliott called for more the women's Ashes to include more Tests, "so the teams can really fight it out".