Women’s T20 World Cup: Heather Knight says England must not ‘look too far ahead’

With the World Cup’s venue changing so last minute, from Bangladesh to the UAE, teams have had to adapt quickly and the matches played so far indicate that spin is going to play a big part on slow, low pitches.

The tournament started with two low-scoring encounters as Bangladesh and Pakistan defended totals of 119 and 116 against Scotland and Sri Lanka respectively.

Knight said discussions around conditions and the weather have played a big part in their plans, but she feels England have all bases covered in their squad to handle whatever they are presented with.

“The dew hasn’t been a factor so far but I’ve been told the evenings will get colder in the next week or so, so it could change,” Knight said.

“But it’s a bit of a guessing game, in terms of when that happens. Watching yesterday, it looked very hot, so I will have to manage my bowlers – we know it’ll be tough, but we feel ready.”

England will likely face a trial by spin against Bangladesh, who boast plenty of variation in their slow bowling to test Knight and her batters, something that has troubled the line-up in recent years.

“We’ve worked a lot in the build-up on how we play spin and slow bowling, which is what we are expecting to face here,” she added.

“We believe we can beat anyone on our best day and our challenge is to put that together on the biggest stage.”