Women’s Ashes: Heather Knight says T20 washouts could make England more aggressive in Test match | Cricket News

England captain Heather Knight on rain hitting Women’s Ashes: “You can moan about it and let it get to you or accept it is not in your control and make the best of what has not been an ideal situation”, Australia will retain Ashes if they win next week’s four-day Test match in Canberra

Heather Knight says the T20 washouts could force her side to be more aggressive in the Women’s Ashes Test match

England captain Heather Knight says the soggy end to the T20 section of the Women’s Ashes could force her side to be more aggressive in the standalone Test match in Canberra.

This weekend’s second and third T20 internationals in Adelaide were wiped out by rain, with just 4.1 overs possible on Saturday before Sunday’s clash was abandoned without a ball bowled.

Australia lead the multi-format series 4-2 – they won the opening T20 by nine wickets – and will retain the Ashes if they are victorious in next week’s four-day Test match at Manuka Oval (January 27-30)

With four points on offer for winning the red-ball game and the potential for rain to impact matters once again, England have a lot to ponder.

Knight: England need to be able to adapt

Asked whether the T20 rain-offs would affect England’s philosophy in the Test, Knight told reporters: “Potentially. We were going in it to win anyway but it might mean a few more discussions about the balance of the side and might dictate what we do in the game.

“The weather might factor in if we lose a day or half a day to rain – we have seen in previous Tests how hard it is to force a result. We are just going to have to adapt and have different scenarios in our head.

“You have to earn the right to be aggressive in Test cricket, so it’s about finding the right approach that we think is going to try and win us the game.

“We will sit down as a group and have a really clear plan to try and take that four points, which would put us in a really strong position ahead of the one-day internationals.”

Seam bowler Kate Cross and batter Lauren Winfield-Hill look set to play in the Test match, with Knight saying the pair have been focussing on red-ball cricket since landing in Australia and that they will be “key” to their hopes of achieving a result in the four-day fixture.

Kate Cross has not featured in the T20 internationals but looks poised to play in the Test match

England’s Ashes build-up has been difficult, with players ‘safe-living’ prior to flying out to Australia and only able to train individually or with members of their own households and then having to deal with tight restrictions after arriving to try and prevent Covid-19 impacting the series.

‘England must make best of bad situation’

With bad weather now an added frustration in their bid to win an Ashes series for the first time since 2013/14, Knight has urged her side to remain positive.

The 31-year-old said: “It has been a very strange Ashes series before we even started and the rain hasn’t been ideal.

“We knew things were going to be thrown at us and the preparation we did during a training block in Loughborough was about trying to be bomb-proof and adapt to anything that happens.

“You can moan about it and let it get to you or accept it is not in your control, get on with it and try to make the best of what has not been an ideal situation.

Humour helps but I am finding it hard to be funny when lots of Australians keep telling me we have brought the weather with us or must be at home!

England captain, Heather Knight

“I am definitely encouraging the girls to take the second option as the first one is not going to help us at all. There is no point being negative.

“I am trying to keep the players relaxed and trying to communicate, almost more than you would normally as when things are uncertain and changing all the time, I think you have got to communicate as much as possible and be really clear with people.”

Reserve days and five-day Tests in future?

Knight suggested that games could have been played at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, which has a roof, in order to try and limit the damage down by the rain, while she also thinks reserve days could be incorporated into future series.

The England skipper accepts that is not feasible in this series, which has been abridged in order to allow the sides to complete a mandatory 10-day quarantine in New Zealand ahead of the 50-over World Cup, which starts on March 4.

“I think reserve days in Ashes and World Cups would be very useful but with the schedule the way it is, it is massively condensed ahead of the World Cup, ” said Knight, whose side were knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2020 T20 World Cup when rain hit and there was no reserve day.

“We have to leave pretty much the day after the Ashes so there is no wiggle room but potentially in future series they can be worked in.

“In a hotly-contested series that might by tight, you don’t want the weather to be the main story, so I would be open to looking at different things.

“I also think a five-day Test match would make things better for everyone – players, viewers – and make sure you don’t miss the contest you want to see. “