Heather Knight opens on T20I series against New Zealand
With the T20I series against New Zealand women set to begin on July 06, the England women’s captain Heather Knight sees the series as the preparation for the T20 World Cup in October.
England completed a 3-0 ODI series sweep against New Zealand earlier this week and is set to play in the T20 leg after winning all eight matches at home this summer. But this experience will not lend a hand in the T20 World Cup as Bangladesh conditions differ from home. Heather has visited Bangladesh 10 years ago and wants to be as prepared as possible for the ICC tournament.
“All we can do as players is be as prepared as we can,” Knight said. “In terms of prepping the team, just little things like playing teams that we think we’re going to play in Bangladesh, that are an option. Regardless of the conditions here, we’re going to have that mantra to try and prepare us as if we’re playing in Bangladesh and trying things out regardless of what the conditions are here.
“So we will see potential things that we’ll do in Bangladesh rather than necessarily, ‘right, it looks a bit green here, we probably would play a seamer, usually an extra seamer,’ we probably won’t do that in these conditions.
“Obviously the aim is to try and win, but we’ve got a bigger picture with the World Cup coming up in the back of the mind as well.
“It’s always a fine balance between prepping individuals but also trying to get your team balance and try a few things potentially that might not be conducive to the conditions here, but might actually fit the conditions in Bangladesh. That’s going to be the forefront of our decision-making as a leadership group.”
England has almost finalized their T20 World Cup squad and needed to fil some slots. “There’s just a couple of spots that we want to get finalized and sorted,” she said. “In terms of what we want to see, it’s the way we want to play in Bangladesh, the skills that we’re going to need as batters and bowlers to be successful in Bangladesh.
“Picking fifteens and picking elevens in particular is really tough at the moment. The girls are putting in performances, which is making it a lot trickier for us, which is a really good place to be. It shows the competition that we’ve got and the players that are performing.
“We’re going to need that whole squad in Bangladesh. Someone can get ill on the morning of a game, so we’re going to need a squad where we’ve got enough backup and enough players that can fill different places in different conditions. We’re close and hopefully, we’ll be pretty set at the back end of the series.”
Freya Kemp will play as an all-rounder against New Zealand as she played as a batter while returning from a back injury. Sophia Dunkley has been added to the squad after being dropped from the T20I squad due to a weak performance in the New Zealand tour.
Meanwhile, Heather Knight spoke about Bell’s performance picking a five-wicket haul. “It was huge for her,” Knight said of Bell’s performance. “We had a little bit of a catch-up that morning and she was pretty nervous to see how it would go and she was brilliant. I think it’ll be huge for her confidence.
“Sometimes when you’re working through those things I on an international stage, and a domestic stage as well, it can be tricky because a lot of people are outcome-focused. But ultimately we knew she would come good eventually, it was just a question of when and those things bedding in.
“Going through that tricky period and having to work through it to come up with a few processes that are going to help her as well, a few mental routines that she’s now got, to be able to do that, I think that’ll be a huge learning for her going forward.” The first match of the T20I series will kickstart at 01:30 PM GMT on July 06 at the Rose Bowl, Southampton.
