Heather Knight previews England's T20 World Cup opener against Bangladesh

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Heather Knight previews England's T20 World Cup opener against Bangladesh  04/10/2024  Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah,

Transcript

00:00Afternoon everyone and welcome to this pre-match press conference with England captain Heather Knight

00:04Just a reminder, please for everyone to ensure that their microphones are

00:09Unmute and all the devices are in mute or either way either mute or vibrate and we'll get started

00:18Heather how do you feel like the team's preparation has gone for this World Cup?

00:22I think we're chomping at the bit to get going. We've obviously been here for a long time with our training camp in Abu Dhabi

00:28Felt like we've we've built into obviously the first game really well

00:31a little bit rusty in that first warm-up game and then a really

00:35Polished performance and really felt like I saw our best in the last one. So yeah super ready

00:41Obviously, it's a bit weird kind of waiting around to get going. You just want to get yourself into the tournament when you're here

00:46I'm sure they'll there'll be a lot of excitement and a lot of nerves flying around tomorrow

00:50But yeah excited to toss you kick it off against Bangladesh at six tomorrow

00:54I know charge is a little bit of an unknown for a few teams. Did you learn much out of watching yesterday's games?

01:00Yeah, I watched it all

01:02Actually, the the pitch was was better than I thought actually the there's a little bit

01:07A couple that didn't bounce as much but actually the bounce overall it looked pretty decent

01:11I think just the outfield and the boundaries obviously look big and it it looks quite hard to to hit boundaries

01:17But it's certainly something we've prepared for

01:20It was conditions we expected in Bangladesh where it's hard to hit boundaries

01:24you have to hit the ball hard into space and and be really smart around you run in between the wickets and and try and

01:29Maximize that so yeah, I felt like watching yesterday learned a lot. There wasn't any Jew

01:33that's going to be a key talking point as the tournament goes on I think when that arrives and

01:39What the G point is and conversations like that. Everyone's trying to work out the best weather

01:44Weather skills

01:46But yeah, it's it's a World Cup

01:48I think that's going to be

01:49Won by the team that adapts the conditions the best and I feel like the skills that we have in the team

01:55Are in a really good place to adapt to whatever conditions we face

01:57So you'll have to see how things change if they change throughout the comp. Have you settled on a team?

02:04Yeah. Yeah, we're pretty close. We haven't announced it yet

02:07But yeah, we're pretty close to

02:09To the team we want we're gonna have a little look at the game tomorrow and then make a final call after that

02:14I think it was the split was like 22 we gets to spin versus nine to pace

02:18Does that tempt you to play your four spinners?

02:22Certainly an option. I think what Lindsay brings is

02:25Accuracy and she doesn't get to bounce much on most wickets from our height

02:30So she certainly is is an option for us particularly in the way that she bowls in the power play

02:35her numbers are unbelievable how she

02:37Is really skillful and defends areas and attacks the stumps in that power play

02:42So she's certainly an option but the teams that play yesterday their spinners tend to dominate

02:46Anyway, I think and I do think pace bowling has a key role to play out here

02:50I think if you can be accurate hold your length and use your skills

02:54I think you can actually be really hard to get away on these pitches as well. So I think the fact that we have

03:00different options

03:01it means that we can be really specific with the conditions we think we're going to face or the teams are going to play against

03:05If we think there's a really good match up to a certain type of bowler

03:09The fact that we have the depth and players we feel can come in and do a real good job

03:14It means that we can flex based on that and just finally for me

03:18How do you think this team has evolved since the last Bowl Cup in South Africa?

03:21Lots, I think I think we learned a huge amount from that World Cup loss

03:25I think that was kind of the start of us

03:28I guess finding how we want to play our cricket and I think we've refined and evolved that

03:34Certainly over the last year and how we've gone about things and it's going to be really key in this World Cup

03:38It's not going to be

03:39Pitches where you go out and blast teams away and hit boundaries really freely

03:44Particularly in those middle to back end overs us that's going to be something that's a bit harder

03:47So I think our skill levels continue to improve but also how we deal with big moments

03:53How are a bit smarter in certain conditions?

03:55I think we've been tested in certain ways throughout this year, which has enabled us to evolve in that way

04:01Hopefully we can show how far we've come this tournament

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