Women’s Ashes: Heather Knight says talk about her future as England captain ‘not for now’ with two games remaining | Cricket News happymamay

Heather Knight says the chat about her future as England captain is “not at the moment” with two matches remaining in the Women’s Ashes.

England lost the series after falling 10-0 down on points, and were swept 3-0 by Australia in the one-day international of the tour before suffering defeat in the first two T20 internationals.

Knight scored 43 off 19 balls in Canberra on Thursday, only for England’s quest for 186 balls for victory to be dashed by a late-match rain with one ball in the final over as Australia prevailed by six runs over Duckworth’s Lewis Stern.

England have not won the Women’s Ashes since 2014 with Australia four wins and two draws in a row since then.

Their aim in the ongoing competition is to avoid a whitewash, with another T20 international in Adelaide on Saturday and a day-night Test match in Melbourne starting next January 30.

“I think in any leadership position you always feel responsible when teams don’t perform well,” said Knight, who has been the team’s captain since 2016.

“We didn’t perform as well as we wanted in all areas. It’s definitely frustrating, but [my future] Not really a question at the moment.

“I’m focused on what we have to do to try to win the next game and try to turn things around. Whatever happens at the end of the round, that will be a conversation later.”

Knight: The referee stops the match due to rain

Knight cut an angry figure as the umpires walked the players off the field at Manuka Oval, seconds after Annabel Sutherland hit a four through backward point to reduce England’s requirement to 18 off the last five balls.

But she later admitted that officials made the right decision.

“It was 100 per cent the right decision by the referees,” added Knight, who had earlier seen Danny White-Hodge top the score with 52 from 40 passes.

“I was really in the zone trying to beat us in that game, and obviously I was frustrated with us coming off the field, but it wasn’t in the hands of the officials at all. It was very wet. Even when we were running, it felt very slippery.”

“I felt like I could get over the line. I felt really ready and had some really good boundary options on a very good wicket of cricket.”

“It was a great crowd and they deserved to finish the game off. You could hear the frustration from the crowd that we walked off the field.”

“We all care about playing for England.”

England have focused on playing entertaining, attacking cricket since John Lewis became head coach in 2022 but they have not won an Ashes series or a T20 World Cup in that time.

Knight added: “That motto is still really important to this team. We’re always at our best when we’re trying to follow the game and enjoy it. But there’s clearly more to cricket than that.”

“We know it’s not as simple as just saying we want to entertain. We also want to win at the end of the day.

“We didn’t do that on this trip, and there are a lot of players who are disappointed and hurt because we didn’t do that.

“We all really care about playing for England and representing a really special team.”

Women’s Ashes – results and matches

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