As the countdown begins for the start of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022, England Women’s team captain Heather Knight believes they are not under pressure after a clean sweep defeat against Australia in the ODI series weeks before the start of their championship defense.
During an interaction organised by ICC, Knight said, “I think five years is quite a long time in international cricket and obviously Australia have been the outstanding team throughout that period and naturally, deservedly they go in as favorites.”
Speaking about the 2017 World Cup victory, Knight said, “Sometimes it’s just about getting over the line and I think that’s what we did so well in 2017. We just were able to win those games that were really tight, we were able to keep our composure in the big moments and deal with everything else that comes with a World Cup.”
While speaking about the pressure of defending a championship, the England Captain says, “I don’t think it (being defending champions) hangs heavy at all on our shoulders. I think the tournament we had in 2017 will give a lot of players confidence that they can deal with the ebbs and flows of the tournament and know how to be successful in World Cups. We’ll be trying to take experience from that and we’re not too worried about having the tag of obviously being reigning champions.”
As England get ready to face Australia in their first encounter of 2022 WC, Heather Knight shares the importance of the game against the ashes rivals, “We’ve got Australia first and it’s clear that we’ve got a bit of a point to prove as a side. Australia are going to go in as favorites with the Ashes series we’ve just had against them but I think it should give us a lot of experience of what it takes to be successful in these events.”
“I think the girls have actually digested and parked the Ashes quite well, we’ve had a bit of time off to get some headspace. We’ve got our first proper training session in Christchurch tomorrow and I’m sure the girls will be raring to go. There’ll be good energy around the group I’m sure and completely looking forward to that first World Cup game.” Knight added.
England start their world cup campaign against Australia on 5th of March 2022 at Hamilton.
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