IND-W v ENG-W: Heather Knight Sees India Series As Preparation For T20 World Cup In Bangladesh

New Delhi: Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian women’s cricket team will take on Heather Knight’s England women in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, on December 6. The English skipper even said that playing in Mumbai will help their team prepare for the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 scheduled to be played in Bangladesh.

Knight believes the three T20Is and 1 off Test against India will be a good opportunity for developing their young talents.

Heather Knight is England’s most experienced player in all formats and was part of the England squad that toured India for an ODI series in the 2018-19 season. She along with players like Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Sophia Dunkley, and Alice Capsey had played in the inaugural Women’s Premier League in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai earlier this year. The top players from England are sure to be part of the second season of the WPL to be played after India’s multi-format series against Australia, which ends in January.

Despite that, Heather Knight feels with the passionate Indian fans in attendance, it will be a big learning experience for her players.

“I always find like I learn a lot about my game playing in Indian conditions. It really tests you as a cricketer in terms of your skill level and how you deal with the noise, the heat and other things that seem to happen on India tours. So I think it’s a really good place to accelerate development. So I’m really excited to see how our younger players cope with it.”

She said experiencing these conditions will keep them in good stead in the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

“We’ve obviously got a T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later on in the year. So yeah, this tour is going to be invaluable in terms of potentially having similar conditions, obviously, to what we’re due to face in Bangladesh,” said Heather Knight in a pre-match press conference ahead of the series-opening T20I match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday.

Kight said she has discussed with her players about things to expect during the tour and has passed on her experience of playing in Indian conditions during her previous visit to the country and the WPL. The England captain picked up the noisy home crowd as one of the factors they will be focussing on during this series as they are expecting similar conditions in Bangladesh as the fans there too are very passionate about their team.

“Yeah, we’ll certainly have a chat about it. I think sometimes you can feel like things are accelerating a bit rushed actually. When there’s a crowd, you feel like the game is happening quite quickly. So we’ve talked a lot about trying to get our own pace with the bat and ball, trying to sort of maintain our concentration in that moment and try and focus on what we’ve got to do. I think trying to silence the crowd will be tough,” she said.

Knight said they are working on a few things like communicating with each other despite the loud noise.

“I think watching the men’s World Cup as well, you see the support and the passion that Indian fans have for India and having experienced that, it’s a hard thing to do to silence the crowd. And even if there’s not many in, they’re usually very, very loud.

“So yeah, it’s more just little things like making sure you can communicate on the pitch or around the noise. As captain, that’s a little bit trickier out here sometimes when there is that noise. But yeah, it’s an amazing challenge. You want to play in front of big crowds. The WPL was awesome. The support that there was for that competition was great, and hopefully, that continues into this series,” she said.