Heather Knight hopeful Lord’s can be more ‘regular fixture’ for England
Lord’s is scheduled to host at least one white-ball match every year until 2031, starting against New Zealand on Wednesday.
Heather Knight is hopeful Lord’s can be a more “regular fixture” for her England side as they look to complete an unbeaten home summer there on Wednesday.
Last year’s Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket labelled Lord’s as “still a home principally for men”, branding the national women’s team never having played a Test at the home of cricket as “truly appalling”.
While England and Wales Cricket Board chair Richard Thompson has a stated aim to rectify that by 2026, Lord’s did host a Women’s Ashes T20 12 months ago and is scheduled to stage at least one white-ball match every year until 2031, starting against New Zealand on Wednesday.
In contrast, England’s men’s side usually have two Tests at Lord’s plus a limited-overs contest every year.
Knight has special memories of HQ – where she captained England to a seminal World Cup win in 2017 and gets to play there more often than most women due to her affiliation with London Spirit in The Hundred.
But she said: “Earlier in my career I didn’t play here a huge amount before that World Cup win. A few of the girls even got lost in the pavilion for a few days because they didn’t know it very well.
“It’s really important. I’d love to see a Test here in the next few years – hopefully that will happen.
“I’m pretty lucky I get to play here for London Spirit and call it my home. It certainly should be a regular fixture in the calendar.”
England head into the final T20 against New Zealand boasting a 4-0 lead, having also won the preceding ODI series 3-0 and prevailed in all five completed matches against Pakistan in May.
While the White Ferns have been underwhelming opponents, they boast quality players – in the likes of Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr and Sophie Devine – and Knight suggested England had not been given enough praise for subduing them.
“A lot of people have said that New Zealand haven’t been great but I think we’ve been awesome,” Knight said. “The way we’ve kept their key players quiet probably needs a little bit more credit.
“I think the way we’ve played and put them under pressure and been relentless when we’ve been on top and trying to keep them quiet has been great.
“We want to continue what we’ve done, we’ve played some awesome cricket. We’re all desperate to continue this ruthless streak and finish on a high.”
England have tinkered with their line-up, fielding four spinners in the opener while Sophia Dunkley has been given a couple of games as opener to provide competition for Maia Bouchier and Danni Wyatt.
The thinking, with head coach Jon Lewis pulling the strings, is to prepare what might await them during October’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, where conditions will be different to what they get in England.
“Jon’s wanted to disrupt us a little bit this summer with a lot of changes and little things that he’s been doing,” Knight added.
“It’s probably a genius move as a coach actually because if he gets something wrong, you just say it’s to disrupt you and to put you under the pump and push your buttons, but actually it’s been a really good move for us.
“We’ve dealt with it really well and it’s probably made us a bit more of an adaptable and nimble team. Hopefully, everything that might be thrown at us at the World Cup, we can deal with very well now.”
