Heather Knight backing winter of rest to help England shine this summer

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Time off is a rarity for England cricketers, but Heather Knight believes it can benefit her side as they prepare for a huge summer on home soil.

England’s women have not played since their World Cup semi-final thumping at the hands of South Africa on October 29, when Laura Woolvardt’s inspired century sent the Proteas into the showpiece in India.

This summer, Knight and her teammates have the opportunity to make amends when they host the T20 World Cup for the first time since the inaugural edition in 2009, which remains the only time they have won the competition.

England have been forced to be creative in the build-up, with a planned training camp in the UAE moved to South Africa due to events in the Middle East, while Knight has been using her time off wisely.

The 35-year-old, whose nine-year spell as captain was brought to an end last March after England were whitewashed in the Ashes, was back Down Under to represent Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash before Christmas and has since been putting herself into the mind of her opponents in a bid to improve.

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“I’ve been having a look at how teams bowl at me,” she said. “We do plans around opposition players in terms of how to get them out and stop them scoring, so I have asked our analysts to do some similar stuff on me.

“I am trying to identify a few areas I really want to work on, a bit of back foot against spin and hitting seamers off their length.

“It has given me a bit of focus and hopefully when I get back to a game scenario, I can continue to keep improving and put myself in a good place for the T20 World Cup later this summer.

“We are used to having so much cricket , so it has been a bit different. It has given me a block to recharge, which you don’t often get to do in international cricket when you are on that treadmill.

“It has given me a chance to work on a few things, which you don’t always get to do when you are so close to performance the whole time.

“It has been quite nice to work on a few things to try and keep adding to my game and be ready when the summer does come around.”

Some of Knight’s teammates have tuned up in the Women’s Premier League in India, with the omens promising.

Nat Sciver-Brunt, who replaced Knight as England’s captain, struck a 57-ball century for Mumbai Indians against Royal Challengers Bangalore, who went on to win the competition.

Helping them do so was seamer Lauren Bell, who saw her Instagram following shoot to more than two million as a result – but Knight knows it is on the field she will benefit most.

“Having played in WPL before, it’s a really good standard and the games are really intense, the crowds have been really good and the pressure is high,” Knight said.

“For someone like Lauren, who has performed amazingly and won the title with RCB, that will give her a huge amount of confidence in herself that she can perform in that competition and play a key role in a title-winning team.

“That will do her the world of good coming back to an England side and it was nice to see her do so well out there and contribute.”

Knight has plenty of runs left in the tank but she will combine her on-field commitments with a new role as women’s general manager at Hundred franchise London Spirit this summer.

And having spent last summer, much of which she missed through injury, soaking up sporting glory for the Lionesses and Red Roses, she knows her side have a tantalising opportunity to do something similar when they are under the World Cup spotlight.

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“It was really cool to be out in Switzerland watching the Lionesses,” she said.

“I know Leah (Williamson, England football captain) a little bit and we got her in to talk to the London Spirit during The Hundred.

“It was great to hear about her experiences out there. Having been on successful teams before too, from the outside it always looks perfect when people win, but hearing the inside stuff, you realise that’s not always the case and you have to overcome different challenges to be successful. It was a really nice reminder.

“Seeing the Lionesses and Red Roses do so well is very motivating, it has been great to see.“The effect that can have on women’s sport in the UK is unbelievable and we are definitely keen to tap into that success and contribute to that bigger picture of making women’s sport hugely successful and in everyone’s psyche as much as we possibly can.”

Knight hopes England will feature in the T20 World Cup final at Lord’s on July 5 and that is not the only showpiece occasion at the home of cricket that she will have her eye on in the coming months.

This summer also features the inaugural season of the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, a nationwide competition for state schools which has been driven forwards by Michael Vaughan.

Knight, who attended two state schools in Plymouth, is proud to have her name on the trophy and excited by the potential of the tournament, which is open to Under-15 teams.

“There are over 1,100 teams entered and more than 400 of them are girls teams, which is brilliant,” she said.

“I started playing Kwik Cricket at school, I had a cricket-mad year 6 teacher and my first successful stint as captain was winning the Asda Kwik Cricket year 6 cup as captain of the boys’ team at Elburton School in Plymstock.

“I have really good memories of starting out in cricket there and that led me to joining up with a club.

“But at secondary school, cricket didn’t really exist. We made a girls’ team just because I played, really, and I got a few mates together to play in a competition.

“The facilities at my secondary school weren’t amazing for cricket, it wasn’t really part of the curriculum or a club that existed apart from the fact I liked it, was quite good at it and managed to get a team together off the back of it.

“If I wasn’t involved in cricket already at my secondary school, I wouldn’t have had any opportunity to play at all.

“But something really cool about this project is seeing the cricket community coming together. Private schools are offering up their facilities to state schools for matches and there are lots of suppliers offering discounted kit.

“It’s a really cool thing to be involved with and I’d have loved to play in it as a 14-year-old.”

Thousands of teams sign up for the chance to play at Lord’s as stars encourage greater access to cricket in state schools. Find out more at https://www.lords.org/mcc/barclays-knight-stokes-cup and follow @_mccfoundation on Instagram.