Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy: Skipper Heather Knight has signalled opportunities for domestic players to impress and put their names in contention for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad, with the tournament set to take place in Bangladesh later this year. Skipper Knight wants England players to ‘go and dominate’ ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 and therefore wants the team to have the best players.
The English summer begins with the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy on Saturday, giving domestic players the chance to play themselves into the plans for the T20 World Cup squad.
“It’s never a closed door if people are performing well,” Knight said, speaking at ECB’s launch of a national tape-ball competition.
“The standard of those regional games has gone through the roof in the last couple of years, so those performances are worth more. It’s a really exciting time, and obviously, we’ve got huge competition in the squad as well.”
England dug into their bench strength when they went up against New Zealand in March and emerged victorious (4-1) despite missing big names to the Women’s Premier League (WPL).
Knight also revealed that she keeps a ‘close eye’ on the domestic circuit for any ‘young talent is coming through’.
“You want to see England players go and dominate, and really put their name forward to keep being in that England side,” she said.
“It’ll be an individual basis as to who plays what. But I always keep a close eye on what’s going on, and what young talent is coming through, and it’s going to be no different this year watching those games. We’ve got a real depth of players we can pick from.
“It’s super exciting. It makes selection a lot tougher, and sometimes, you have more unhappy players – which is completely fine. It’s a really good place to be.
“With that World Cup in October, it’s really important that we keep moving forward… Bangladesh is a tough place to go and play, so that’s the focus of the summer: trying to get in a really good place, ready for that tournament.”
England won the inaugural ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2009 that they hosted, beating New Zealand in the final. Since then Australia have won six of the seven titles with West Indies breaking their title-winning spree in 2018 in India.
