England Girls’s captain Heather Knight stated the one-off Take a look at in opposition to India beginning in Navi Mumbai on Thursday can be a ‘large unknown’ for each the groups and approaching the sport with the precise mindset can be essential. Indian girls’s outfit has not misplaced a Take a look at — at residence since 1995 and away since 2006 — will provide an enormous problem to the guests, however the Harmanpreet Kaur-led aspect has not performed red-ball cricket for the final two years. Nonetheless, Knight didn’t learn an excessive amount of into the non-familiarity issue.
“I believe it’s a large unknown for each the groups. Clearly, taking part in multi-format for the Indian women as effectively, they’ve probably not performed it right here for a very long time. So sure, it is massively thrilling any time we get to don the whites,” Knight instructed the media forward of England’s coaching session on Wednesday.
England can be hitting the milestone a centesimal Assessments however the skipper was not conscious of the document.
“I had no concept, really. That’s fairly a cool stat. I believe taking part in a Take a look at match in India is (within the) bucket checklist for any cricketer and it is actually cool that we get the chance to do this,” she replied.
“I completely love taking part in Take a look at cricket. I’ve obtained a few of the finest recollections in an England shirt taking part in within the whites. (It’s) tremendous cool that we get to play right here and it is going to be an actual robust problem and one the staff is admittedly excited for,” she stated.
Knight acknowledged that there can be some nervousness within the camp however would draw inspiration from the short turnaround between the Take a look at and T20I sequence final 12 months.
“It’s a actually fast turnaround and we don’t play Take a look at cricket fairly often. Naturally, there’s certain to be extra nervousness and fear and stress across the group simply because it is purely one thing we do not play fairly often,” she stated.
“However we have now performed it earlier than. We did it in 2022 in Canberra the place we had two days to prep after the T20 sequence due to the condensed nature of the sequence resulting from COVID. We have now talked about having performed it earlier than and in my expertise getting your mindset is admittedly essential.
Knight emphasised on having the precise mindset as there was solely a three-day hole between the conclusion of the latest T20I sequence and this match.
“You may’t change your sport and prep an excessive amount of in two days. It is simply getting clear on the way you wish to go about issues, the way you wish to play, how you are going to rating runs, how you are going to take wickets and being in the precise spot and trusting that you will adapt on the market,” she stated.
“There’s clearly little fine-tuning you are able to do and we have had a bunch of gamers which have solely been within the Take a look at squad as effectively which were centered purely on red-ball crickets, that is been fairly helpful.” Knight indicated that England could be tempted to select an additional bowler given the new and humid circumstances.
“You might be nonetheless backing your finest cricketers to adapt to any circumstances however, clearly, the warmth and the humidity brings within the choice of taking part in one other bowler. That’s the type of dialogue we’re having round — (to have) an additional bowler or a batter. We are going to most likely go in direction of an additional bowler,” she stated.
With the four-day Assessments that means 100 overs to be bowled per day, Knight stated it is going to pressure the groups to be extra proactive in pushing for a outcome. “We would must speed up the sport artificially somewhat bit. In 4 days, it’s important to pressure the outcome somewhat bit extra,” she stated.
England have misplaced three and drawn 5 Assessments since their final win in January 2014 and Knight stated her staff is ‘determined’ to vary that.
“(We’re) determined to win a Take a look at match. It appears like a very long time since we have now performed that as an England aspect. We have now had a whole lot of attracts and we’re working in direction of how we wish to play, and if we do this, hopefully, we’ll come out with a really good outcome,” she stated.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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