One-off Test against India ‘huge unknown' for both teams: England captain Heather Knight
England Women's captain Heather Knight said the one-off Test against India starting in Navi Mumbai on Thursday will be a ‘huge unknown' for both the teams and approaching the game with the right mindset will be crucial.
Indian women's outfit has not lost a Test — at home since 1995 and away since 2006 — will offer a massive challenge to the visitors, but the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side has not played red-ball cricket for the last two years.
However, Knight did not read too much into the non-familiarity factor.
“I think it is a huge unknown for both the teams. Obviously, playing multi-format for the Indian girls as well, they have not really done it here for a long time. So yes, it's hugely exciting any time we get to don the whites,” Knight told the media ahead of England's training session on Wednesday.
England will be hitting the milestone 100th Tests but the skipper was not aware of the record.
“I had no idea, actually. That is quite a cool stat. I think playing a Test match in India is (in the) bucket list for any cricketer and it's really cool that we get the opportunity to do that,” she replied.
“I absolutely love playing Test cricket. I've got some of the best memories in an England shirt playing in the whites. (It is) super cool that we get to play here and it's going to be a real tough challenge and one the team is really excited for,” she said.
Knight acknowledged that there will be some anxiety in the camp but would draw inspiration from the quick turnaround between the Test and T20I series last year.
“It is a really quick turnaround and we do not play Test cricket very often. Naturally, there's bound to be more anxiety and worry and stress around the group just because it's purely something we don't play very often,” she said.
“But we have done it before. We did it in 2022 in Canberra where we had two days to prep after the T20 series because of the condensed nature of the series due to COVID. We have talked about having done it before and in my experience getting your mindset is really important."
Knight emphasised on having the right mindset as there was only a three-day gap between the conclusion of the recent T20I series and this match.
“You can't change your game and prep too much in two days. It's just getting clear on how you want to go about things, how you want to play, how you're going to score runs, how you're going to take wickets and being in the right spot and trusting that you'll adapt out there,” she said.
“There's obviously little fine-tuning you can do and we've had a group of players that have only been in the Test squad as well that have been focused purely on red-ball crickets, that's been quite handy."
Knight indicated that England would be tempted to pick an extra bowler given the hot and humid conditions.
“You are still backing your best cricketers to adapt to any conditions but, obviously, the heat and the humidity brings in the option of playing another bowler. That is the sort of discussion we are having around — (to have) an extra bowler or a batter. We will probably go towards an extra bowler,” she said.
With the four-day Tests meaning 100 overs to be bowled per day, Knight said it will force the teams to be more proactive in pushing for a result. “We might have to accelerate the game artificially a little bit. In four days, you have to force the result a little bit more,” she said.
England have lost three and drawn five Tests since their last win in January 2014 and Knight said her team is ‘desperate' to change that.
“(We are) desperate to win a Test match. It feels like a long time since we have done that as an England side. We have had a lot of draws and we are working towards how we want to play, and if we do that, hopefully, we will come out with a very nice result,” she said.
