The England coach, Jon Lewis, said his players experienced a “sharp learning curve” about perception management in the fallout from their disastrous group-stage exit in last month’s T20 World Cup. The team’s fitness, professionalism and leadership were all called into question.

Criticism was directed at the players when they fell apart against West Indies after their captain Heather Knight’s injury-enforced absence from the field, dropping six straightforward catches, as the team seemed to panic when Nat Sciver-Brunt took the reins. Further pointed remarks were then made about the conditioning of some players.

But as the team look to the future, beginning with a multi-format series in South Africa this month, Lewis backed Sciver-Brunt to remain as vice-captain while admitting they need to work on “developing the next group of leaders” to prepare for life beyond Knight. He also defended the team’s preparation.

Lewis said Sciver-Brunt was a “more than capable leader”, but refused to confirm that she would succeed Knight on a full-time basis.

“There’ll be a natural point where Heather feels: ‘I’ve done all I can to take this team as far as I can.’ And then at that point, whenever that is, we’ll think about what options are available to us,” he said.

“There is some work to do around developing the next group of leaders within this team. We will be making sure that there is an oversupply of leaders when we get to that point.”

England have a big three months ahead, beginning in South Africa on 24 November with three T20s, three ODIs and a Test match, before the main event in January: the Women’s Ashes. Their World Cup exit was hardly ideal preparation, but despite the embarrassment of failing to reach the semi-finals, England have opted for continuity over change, with Alice Capsey the only player to be dropped from the World Cup squad.

“We feel this is the best squad to take on the challenges ahead,” Lewis said. “Right now, Heather’s the best person to captain this team.” He also defended his own position as head coach, saying he felt the team had been “pushing forward in terms of our performances over the past year”. He also batted away accusations his players had overindulged during the World Cup after several Instagram posts by the team showed them enjoying boat trips, sunbathing and drinking between matches.

“I’ve got an incredibly diligent and incredibly hardworking group of players who I feel get the balance right in terms of relaxing and having fun, and being able to turn off from the high pressure jobs that they do,” he said.

Lewis blamed the furore about the team’s lack of fitness on their naivety about social media. “That will be a sharp learning curve for the players involved,” he said. “I really trust our players and they train incredibly hard, but the female game in particular is getting a lot more scrutiny than it ever got before.

“Unfortunately for the players, that’s something that they’re going to have to think about and understand the consequence of the misconception of what they are doing and how people can misconceive a social media post.”

Capsey’s omission from the T20 leg of the South Africa tour comes after a difficult year when the 20-year-old passed 50 once in 18 T20 internationals. “Her form has been trending downwards for probably the last eight to nine months,” Lewis said. “We’d like her to be a little bit more consistent. It’s a good time for her to have a little think, a little reset and come back stronger.” Dani Gibson also misses out due to recent knee surgery, though she is expected to return before the Ashes. The 28-year-old hard-hitting all-rounder Paige Scholfield has been called up as cover, after making her international debut against Ireland in September.