England women's cricket team captain Heather Knight has on Tuesday (June 15) expressed her disappointment at being given a used pitch at the Bristol County Ground for the one-off Test match against India Women, starting on Wednesday (June 16) in Bristol.
Bristol's County Ground pitch had been used for the recent Vitality T20 Blast fixture between Gloucestershire and Sussex last Friday. On the eve of the one-off Test match between India and England, Knight said it is “disappointed and sorry” that the used pitch is being prepared for the first Test in seven years, saying it's “not ideal” as they would like to play on a fresh strip in Bristol.
She also pointed out that the Bristol wicket might become sluggish to assist a “spin-heavy” India women’s team than the hosts England Women in the one-off Test match from Wednesday.
Knight said on the eve of their four-day fixture: “I've had a look (at the pitch), it is a used wicket... which I guess obviously isn't ideal. We would much prefer to be on a fresh one but it is what it is and we don't know how it's going to play necessarily. But it was a little bit too late for that to happen.”
She added, “It's unfortunate, it's not ideal, we'd much rather be on a fresh one, but we don't know how it's going to play yet. It still could play very well. Generally, at Bristol you look at the deck, sometimes it looks not great but actually plays brilliantly. So yeah, look, it's not ideal but it is what it is and we're obviously going to have to perform as best we can on the wicket we're given.”
However, the England skipper has insisted that the hosts prepared well for the spin challenge from the Indian team in the one-off Test match. She added, “They're a good team, they've got some brilliant bowlers. I imagine their attack will be reasonably spin heavy and we've been preparing for that.”
She added, “I guess at Taunton there was a lot of talk about the pitch and it didn't actually do too much, so we're going to have to wait and see and see how it plays. Obviously slightly different with it being used, but we're confident we've got the squad and the XI that we're going to pick to win this Test match.”
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On the Indian team, Knight said: “They've got some world-class batters that we're going to have very clear plans against us. They've got some aggressive batters as well that could take the game away from us but we're very confident in our plans and how we're going to do things.”
She signed off by saying, “We feel like we've got the line-up to be able to take 20 wickets in a Test match, which is obviously what we're going to do and go for that win which we think we can.”
(With PTI Inputs)
