Osborne aims to forge Somerset Women 'identity'

New Somerset women's head coach Erin Osborne hopes the team find their "identity" through the 2026 season when she takes charge for the first time.

The former Australia off-spinner was appointed in November on a deal until the end of 2028, following the departure of Trevor Griffin.

Last season was Somerset's inaugural campaign as a Tier 1 club following major reforms to domestic cricket in England.

"I do hope we find our identity and how we want to go about playing is really evident so if any of the fans walk into the stadium and see a brand of cricket and identify that, I'll be really happy," Osborne told BBC Radio Somerset.

As a player, Osborne won 121 caps for Australia across all three formats, winning the T20 World Cup in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

The 36-year-old had been coaching ACT Meteors women's development squad and was also the first woman to hold the role of male pathway manager at the club, before making the move to the northern hemisphere.

Osborne said she hoped Somerset's style would be "exciting".

"A squad that can problem solve is really important, but also one that's not willing to take a backward step," she said.

"We want to be aggressive, we want to take every opportunity to score, and score quickly, but we also need to be able to adapt and absorb pressure as well."

Somerset won just one of 14 matches during the 2025 T20 Blast to finish bottom of the table, while they missed out on a place in the One-Day Cup semi-finals after finishing fifth in League One.

Osborne spent her whole career playing in her home country and she said the changes made to the English club game in 2025 mean it could surpass the Australian system soon, where players have been full-time for a number of years.

"Now that the girls are full-time, I can see this system going ahead, being better than Australia, purely based on the number of games they get to play," Osborne said.

"Back home with the Australian system for domestic players, they spend a lot of time training and then play a handful of games, a whole pre-season for 12 games of cricket.

"Whereas here you've got 24-30 games of cricket – that's the biggest difference."