Former England Test captain Michael Vaughan led his side to a historic and era-defining Ashes victory in 2005, beating another of cricket’s greatest teams in Ricky Ponting’s Australia.
There are parallels to be drawn between the task facing Heather Knight and the one that Vaughan overcame: an intimidating, ruthless opposition, a side mixed with experience and promising youth, and a chance to make history.
And Vaughan echoes Mott’s belief that aggression will be the key for England to win.
“You could argue that Australia’s women are the best sporting team in the world, so England are up against a juggernaut of success,” says Vaughan.
“But to beat those great teams you have got to be willing to take risks.”
Vaughan also emphasises the fact that some of England’s young players – the likes of Alice Capsey, Issy Wong, Gibson and Lauren Bell – do not have the mental baggage of constantly losing to Australia, drawing comparison with Kevin Pietersen’s fearless approach in 2005.
“England should be braver. Pick your quick bowler, be aggressive, be proactive, be fearless.
“Australia are clear favourites, they’re an outstanding side, but there’s no point in just doing what you’ve done before because you’re just going to end up with the same result as before.
“England could possibly play the best game of their lives and still lose – Australia are that good. But give yourselves the chance to be free of the baggage of old, and allow the youngsters to have their say.”
Despite their record, Mott says one of the hallmarks of Australia’s success was to never accept complacency.
“We always looked back to the defeat by India in the semi-final of the World Cup in 2017 and I don’t think, from that day forwards, we ever assumed that we would win any game of cricket.
“Great teams find a way to balance the fear of failure and the expectation and what we did really well in the last couple of years was to embrace the expectation rather than fear it.
“There were times where we were up against it, and most other teams would probably roll over but we just find ways to grind out a victory – even when they’re having a bad day, they can still win.
“And you just need to make sure as an opposition that if the opportunity comes, take it – because you don’t get many.”