Howard Assesses England's First Performance

Tess Howard was pleased to see England’s women get their World Cup campaign up and running with a point against India, and the team will look to improve in a couple of areas ahead of their next game.

Howard - playing in her first ever World Cup game – helped England take the lead early on through Izzy Petter, only for India to level before half time.

The second half was a cagey affair as the teams were unable to trouble the scorers further; although England had a few sights of goal and Maddie Hinch stood up well to Indian attacks at the other end.

Tess said: “We started really strongly, we put India under pressure, we've got a point and it's a game under our belt for the group.

“There's a lot of momentum we can take forward into the next games.”

Asked what her team can improve on moving forwards, she said: “We'll tighten up our defence a little bit, also tighten up our attack in terms of the small little passes, and making sure when we get the attacking opportunities then we put them away. We had a few in this game, those are the small tweaks we need to make.”

England now face New Zealand on Tuesday in Pool B, with pushback at 6:30pm UK time. The Black Sticks also drew their opening game against China, with no side yet setting down a marker in Pool B.

The match – and all other games in the tournament – are live on BT Sport in the UK.