Women's T20 World Cup: Heather Knight confident of 'refined and evolved' England

Women's T20 World Cup 2024: Heather Knight has said that England are up and running for the tournament after crashing out in the semis last time around in 2023.

In Short

• England will begin their campaign on October 8
• England won the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2009
• England finished as the semi-finalist in 2023

Skipper Heather Knight said that England have ‘evolved’ in the last one and a half years and are ready to put their best foot forward in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. Back in 2009, England got their hands on the trophy, but haven’t won the title since then. They finished as the runners-up in 2012, 2014 and 2018 after losing to Australia twice and West Indies once.

Last time around, Knight and Co. lost to eventual runners-up South Africa by six runs in the semi-finals. England are set to start their campaign on Saturday, October 5 with their clash against Nigar Sultana Joty’s Bangladesh at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Women's T20 World Cup 2024 Full Coverage

Knight said that England batters need to be on top of their game as the pitches in the World Cup are mostly going to be bowling-friendly.

“Lots I think. I think we learned a huge amount from that World Cup loss. I think that was kind of the start of us I guess finding how we want to play our cricket and I think we've refined and evolved that certainly over the last year and how we've gone about things and it's going to be really key in this World Cup it's not going to be pitches where you go out and blast teams away and hit boundaries really freely particularly in those middle to back-end overs that's going to be something that's a bit harder,” Knight said in the pre-match press conference.

‘Our skill levels continue to improve’

England have been in stupendous form this year, having won 13 out of 15 Women’s T20Is this year. Having done well in the shorter formats this year, Knight sounded optimistic about her team’s performance in the tournament.

“So, I think our skill levels continue to improve, but also how we deal with big moments, how we're a bit smarter in certain conditions. I think we've been tested in certain ways throughout this year, which has enabled us to evolve in that way. And yeah, hopefully we can show how far we've come this tournament,” Knight added.

In the warm-ups, England lost to defending champions Australia by 33 runs before beating Sophie Devine’s New Zealand.