Heather Knight: "The World Cup is on a par with an Ashes series"

NICK FRIEND: Knight is a fiercely proud skipper of a relentless side, a team that has won 14 successive matches across all formats. When you are programmed to win, anything less represents a failure

Heather Knight is a World Cup-winning captain. Under her leadership, however, England have not yet won the Women’s Ashes.

Granted, of course, she has only been at the helm for one such series – the eight-apiece stalemate at the back-end of 2017, which saw Australia retain the trophy.

Nonetheless, it grates. It grates because Knight is a fiercely proud skipper of a relentless side, a team that has won 14 successive matches across all formats. When you are programmed to win, anything less represents a failure.

“It is going to be a challenge,” Knight admits of this year's instalment. “The best two teams in the world – it’s going to be a brilliant summer and I’m really looking forward to it.

“A home Ashes series is very special time in your career and it’s one of those things that you remember very vividly.

“For me, the World Cup is on a par with an Ashes series. Some of my most memorable – best and worst – moments have been in Ashes series.

“These are the games you want to perform well in, the ones you want to really win as a team. Winning would be up there just behind the World Cup win.

“It would be pretty hard to top it with the way that final was at Lord’s. But if we were able to win them back, it would be one of the highlights of my career.”

England have gone all out to ensure that the mistakes of last time, when Knight’s side found themselves undercooked and caught cold, are nowhere to be seen come the end of the seven-match multi-format contest. Back then, rain in Brisbane before the series began was partially to blame for a sloppy, cumbersome beginning.

“We take some confidence from the draw over there,” she says. “What cost us over there is that we didn’t start very well – we lost those first two ODIs and we were a little bit underprepared.”

^{Knight would love to win he first Ashes series as captain}

Now, however, England are ready; three-match series in both white-ball formats against West Indies have wiped away any cobwebs that were even allowed to develop after a busy end to 2018.

West Indies were never given a sniff. At times, they were made to look amateurish. Even without the talismanic Deandra Dottin, Knight could scarcely have wished for a greater confidence boost.

Batters batted, bowlers bowled, fielders fielded. Everyone who needed runs found them in some proportion. Everyone who needed overs and, by extension, wickets, was given exactly what was required. Where rests were needed, rests were taken.

“It has been hard not to have half an eye on that Ashes series and trying to peak at the right times,” she confesses.

“In terms of selection, that’s what we’ve tried to do. We’ve tried to get as many of the main girls into some kind of form and also rest them when we have had opportunities to do so – both to give opportunities to others and to have players as fit as possible towards the back end of the summer.

“Australia are such a strong side. They have a very deep batting lineup, but so have we. We are very strong now with a lot of strength in depth. The girls have got into a habit of winning and we push each other continuously. We can’t be in a better place than this going into an Ashes series.”

Part of England’s strength in depth – a product of the ECB’s commitment to the growth of the women’s game and its increasing professionalisation – has come in the emergence of Amy Jones.

Although the 26-year-old made her international bow back in 2013, it has been in the last couple of years that the wicketkeeper-batsman has made her mark. Intriguingly, her best efforts have come when Sarah Taylor, England’s world-class keeper, has been absent.

^{Knight was made an MBE in 2018}

For Knight, of course, it represents a dilemma of sorts, but a frightfully positive one. So far this summer, there has been space for both, even if Taylor has endured an unusually barren time with bat in hand. In truth, though, when you possess the hands of Taylor behind the stumps, runs are, in a sense, an added bonus.

“The way Amy has developed in the last 18 months has been truly remarkable really,” Knight gushes. “In her technical game and in her mindset and how she carries herself as a cricketer and a person, she is on a real high in terms of her confidence.

“Everything she does looks like it belongs in an England shirt. She is a very good keeper as well, which makes it a lot easier for us if there was ever an injury to Sarah Taylor.

“They push each other to keep improving on their keeping as well. I think they’re the two best keepers in the women’s game, so it’s an exciting place to be.”

Jones’ story – and her rise – is the sort that leaves Knight, by her own admission, envious of how the outlook of the women’s game has altered on its axis.

“I remember when we were working three or four days a week with Chance to Shine,” she reflects. “We were doing that while trying to fit in our cricket sessions and our fitness stuff early in the morning and late at night.

“Often, we wouldn’t have the time to recover properly and we’d be in our car all the time. For the girls coming into the game now, the opportunities and the support that they’ve got is absolutely unreal. I’m a little bit jealous, I guess.”

^{Knight is intent on leaving the game in a better position than she found it}

The peak, of course, came at Lord’s in that golden summer of 2017. Even as Knight looks back on an unsurpassable day, she is emphatic in her view that, when the game is left in the hands of the future generations, the attention and figures that accompanied the World Cup final must be a norm rather than a single moment in time. It was a day that showed what was possible, even if the event's protagonist-in-chief was left speechless.

“No chance,” she laughs, recalling her first thought of the intention to sell-out cricket’s spiritual home for the final. By the time England had won their semi-final, that mission had been accomplished.

“The game keeps on surprising me,” Knight chuckles. “As players at the moment, we are very lucky that we are the right age to be playing at this time. “We try and remember and be linked to the past of the game, which I think is really important. It is our duty of players to keep trying to push the bar and playing better and more exciting cricket.

“It is important that we keep on pushing towards these big crowds. It shows that when people invest in the game, in publicizing it and making it a great spectacle, it brings people in.”

That, ultimately, is the name of the game for Knight. Captaincy of any national side – regardless of either country or sport – comes with greater responsibility than sheer on-field success. But, at the same time, one breeds the other.

“Seeing the way the game has changed since I made my debut and when I was a kid is probably one of the things that gives me the most pleasure,” she reflects.

“Playing for England is very special and you are there to do a job and to try and win games for your country, but if you see more people playing the game and you leave the sport in a better state than when we started, then that will give us great pleasure.

“It is brilliant that the game is more visible now. There are still strides that need to be made, but it is exciting how far the game could go and how big it could be in ten years’ time. It is great that people are giving the game the attention it deserves.”

Knight knows what’s at stake. An Ashes victory would add even greater cement to her outstanding legacy.