Show caption Tammy Beaumont’s England form has been transformed by moving up the batting order. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images via Reuters England women's cricket team Tammy Beaumont: ‘I genuinely doubted whether I was good enough’ The England opener talks about how coaches revived her confidence from rock bottom and helped her become a spearhead of the team’s World Cup challenge Vithushan Ehantharajah Fri 21 Jul 2017 05.45 EDT Share on Facebook

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The 2014 World T20 was a dark time for Tammy Beaumont. Having turned 23 on the eve of the tournament, she travelled to Bangladesh as a member of an experienced England side and was seen as the player to give the batting some lower-order punch. For once it was a set role, something she has craved since making her international debut keeping wicket and batting at No10 against West Indies in 2009.

England made the final, falling to Australia, but Beaumont failed miserably in the tournament. Four innings returned 10 runs. All in, she faced 28 balls. “I genuinely came home having doubts about whether I was good enough to be an international batter,” she says. “Was I wasting my time?”

It sounds a rhetorical question now but it was not then. She sat down with Carl Crowe, the England assistant coach, and asked bluntly: “Am I even good enough to be here? Why do I keep messing it up? Why am I bothering putting in all the hard work if it never comes off?”

Crowe offered two things that Beaumont needed at that moment: clarity and a plan. He asked Beaumont what she wanted. Operating in the middle order was not for her. Two options were available: walk away from the game or fight for the role she craved. She decided on the latter, with one caveat: to be the best opening batsman in the world.

A few years on, here we are. England face India in a Lord’s final of a home World Cup with Beaumont leading the line with 387 runs – the third most in the competition – thanks to two fifties and a devastating 148 against South Africa in the group stage. She says she still has work to do to be the best but her rate of improvement since the start of 2016 is astonishing.

The first of three one-day international centuries came in June last year and, with her 148, she became the fourth fastest Englishwoman to pass 1,000 runs – in 32 innings – despite scoring only 207 in her first 16 knocks.

Following Crowe’s path was no straight line. It took the guidance of Mark Robinson for Beaumont to really feel appreciated when the England coach asked her to open the batting at last year’s World T20. “It really did feel like he gave me a second chance.”

Robinson saw something in her: an ability to strike the ball down the ground and an ingrained strength he wanted to bring to the fore.

Every game, he asked a bit more of Beaumont, carefully adding responsibility. “He put more faith in me every innings and it was amazing.”

After England’s semi-final win against South Africa at Bristol, Beaumont’s father thanked Robinson for turning around his daughter’s career and “really believing in her”. “I haven’t actually seen him get that emotional before,” Beaumont says. “I was a bit like: ‘Dad, shut up, please – you’re embarrassing me!’”

Beaumont’s rise can be aligned with the more welcoming, cheery nature of this England side. Jenny Gunn mentioned that, in her 13-year career, this dressing room is the happiest she has been in. An undercurrent of fun runs through this squad, on and off the field, without compromising their work ethic.

England through to final of Women's Cricket World Cup – video

Take, for example, that semi-final against South Africa. For all the tension around the ground at Bristol, there was relative calm in the England changing room.

Beaumont felt it was quite natural given there was no point sitting with the next batsman in and “clouding their judgment” with what shots to play. They did, however, implore the No11, Alex Hartley, to take off her “massive” thigh pad so she could run faster. “What if I get hit?” Hartley asked. “It’ll be worth it when you make it to the other end,” replied her team-mates. The way Beaumont regales listeners with the final throes of that match, which England nearly threw away, makes it sound more like a road trip to the beach.

“Those last 10 overs, myself and Sarah Taylor, we were pretty annoying to say the least,” she says. With England needing 46 from as many balls, the cameras panned to them in distress on the balcony as a wicket fell. “My head was in my hands and then I thought: ‘Our girls have got to go out there and might see us and that’s not really going to help them in any way.’”