England captain Heather Knight hopes her team’s ability in tournament cricket will help them defend the Women’s World Cup title.
Knight led his team to a thrilling World Cup final against India five years ago in front of a sold-out crowd at Lord’s.
But the current England team reached New Zealand after a crushing 12-4 loss to arch-rivals Australia in the multi-format Women’s Ashes.
As if that wasn’t enough, England lost all three One Day Internationals – the format of the World Cup they begin with a match against Australia in Hamilton on Saturday.
Australia, for all the setback of a stunning nine-wicket defeat by New Zealand in Christchurch, where home captain Sophie Devine scored an impressive 161 as her team chased down a mammoth target of 322, remained tournament favourites.
The Southern Stars have lost just one ODI since 2018 when they played an unbeaten 26-match knock for India in September.
But the structure of the World Cup, in which all eight teams play each other in a round-robin group stage, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals, could work in England’s favour.
– ‘get fed up with’ –
And as shown by both Devine and India’s Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored an unbeaten 171 not out in the 2017 semi-final over Australia, Meg Lanning’s team was set to face their much-anticipated attack in a one-off game by an opponent. can be dodged. ,
“We’ve got Australia first and it’s clear we’ve got a little bit of point to prove as a side,” Knight said before New Zealand’s remarkable practice win.
“Sometimes it’s just about getting ahead of the line and I think we did so well in 2017.”
The arrival of the domestic Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, in which players face the pressure of a lively crowd in a televised competition, including some of the world’s best cricketers, has helped develop professional talent unmatched elsewhere in the women’s game. have helped.
England tried to strike a balance with the introduction of the Women’s Hundred last year but it looks like they are playing catch-up.
And the way England handled the pressure of an ODI-type run chase in the only Test of the Ashes series – they needed 45 runs to win off the final 60 balls, with seven wickets in hand, yet restricted the final 13 balls to nine. Gave. The suspension of draws ahead of the World Cup was not an encouraging sign.
Knight, however, is confident that now-fresh England, who thrashed Bangladesh by 109 runs in a practice match on Monday in which all-rounder Nat Sciver scored a century, will have a different proposition in New Zealand.
Their good form continued with a six-wicket win over second-placed South Africa in rain-hit practice on Wednesday.
“I think the girls have really digested the Ashes and parked well, we have a little bit of time to get some headspace,” Knight said.
England will again be eyeing experienced pacers Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole.
But the likes of wicketkeeper Amy Jones and middle-order shotmaker Sophia Dunkley have given England a dash of youthful dynamism with the bat and in the field.
For Dunkley, the transformation from spectator to team member in the 2017 finals has been a dream.
“I remember seeing the girls doing a lap of honor at the end and clapping them,” Dunkley told Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
“Then there was a moment when they announced that the next World Cup was going to be in New Zealand, and in my mind I was like: ‘Okay, I want to be there’.”
Not that Knight’s team is the pinnacle of his ambitions with a bid to become the first England team to retain the World Cup.
“It will be an amazing historic moment to be champions one after the other,” said Dunkley.
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