Heather Knight: ' Our best opportunity to encourage is to win great competitions'

The England captain thinks her players have "become smarter" while still adhering to the violent mantra.

For some 18 times, England Women have committed to playing a harder, faster, more aggressive type of cricket but, according to Heather Knight, they are also becoming smarter.

Since Jon Lewis took over as head coach at the end of the 2022 English summers, the team perception has been obvious, expressed in phrases such as "attacking mindset", "walk towards the harm" and the even more widespread "inspire and entertain".

It has worked in so far as it has transformed a team which was fully beaten 12 points to four by Australia in the 2019 Ashes and 6- 4 in a rainfall- hit 2021- 22 set into a side which drew next year's series on points, winning four matches to Australia's three.

But it is very much a work in progress. In their current home set against Pakistan, England lacked cruelty and polish, despite being a much stronger side.

Knight, England's commander, believes that in hosting New Zealand in three Wickets starting next year followed by five T20Is, they have an opportunity to develop on expertise gained against the White Ferns in New Zealand earlier this year.

" We became a bit of a better team", Knight told ESPNcricinfo, looking back on England's journey of New Zealand in March and April. " We played on bigger boundaries, wickets that did a little bit more in the powerplay, so it was n't really easy to attack then. We learned how to be a little smarter and how to modify a little bit to various situations.

The plan was to "go from game one and keep the feet down," as the saying goes, and there might be some minor bumps along the way, but we definitely learned a lot from that tour."

England won the T20I set 4-1 after defeating New Zealand in their earlier Batsmen earlier this year.

England have lost just two of their 13 completed Batsmen since the start of December 2022 and they have won 21 of their 27 T20Is in that time. Critically, with a T20 World Cup rapidly approaching in Bangladesh in October, one of those loses was to hosts and underdogs South Africa in the semi- last of last year's T20 World Cup and two more to a visiting Sri Lanka aspect who had never beaten them in a set before.

There were also lessons against Pakistan, including playing on slower innings. At Edgbaston, England recovered from 11 for 4 to get the first T20I, finally secured a 37- run ODI defeat in Derby which Knight described at the time as" scrappy".

" Our task is just to keep getting better, maintain playing cricket that we want to enjoy and also winning those activities when it's hard," Knight said.

" You look at that Derby activity, it was n't probably the most exciting to watch often," she added, recalling how England failed to say the ultimate innings of a fit that they had often dominated". In that situation, I suppose it's just about delivering the results and trying to say," Look, it was n't quite the perfect wicket to play the way we wanted to," but also being wise with it and adapting to what's in store.

" Because ultimately our biggest chance to inspire as well is winning big competitions and performing in big events, and trying to win in the way that we want to do, which is exciting and attacking".

The balance is much finer in T20 cricket, where the margins for error are far smaller and understanding that is becoming a key part of England's narrative.

England's standout performance came with a 48-ball 87 in the third T20I against Pakistan, and Nat Sciver- Brunt put together a corresponding innings with an unbeaten century in the final match of the tour.

" T20 is so hard to be consistent, it's really a tough thing to do", Knight said. One of the best openers in the world, Danni, might come off one in three or one in four, according to the article. She does n't come off every game and she's brilliant at being able to manage that.

" It can be quite mentally tough, honestly. Her super- strength has been able to say: ' Right, I did n't get any runs, I'm completely fine. In the next game, I'm going to try to play exactly the same way, and that's how I want to play.

" It's about being really clear going into that T20 World Cup in particular, how we want to do things. It's all well and good saying,' oh, we're going to be attacking, we're going to be aggressive,' but being really clear on inpidually the' how' of that".

But it is not only a World Cup victory, or how it is achieved, that has the potential to inspire, as Knight well knows. On Monday, she joined Chance to Shine, the children's cricket charity with whom she has held a long association, in welcoming hundreds of state school pupils to Lord's for a day of cricket coaching and other activities.

Knight has worked with the organisation since finishing university, when she coached state- school children- often alongside Charlotte Edwards- two days a week while juggling a burgeoning playing career that, for her, did n't become fully professional until three years later, in 2013.

Before everything turned into a profession, Knight said," It allowed us to pay the bills, essentially while we were still playing cricket for England, and it allowed us to live." " It's really important to try to get cricket into state schools and there's a lot of barriers there, like facilities. At my old school there, people used to smoke on the rubbish astro turf that we had and there was stains on it and things like that.

" Here today there's state- school children from all over the place, from all backgrounds, coming in and having an amazing day at Lord's. It's all about giving them a good first experience of cricket really, and trying to get them interested in the game and more involved."

Chance to Shine deliver cricket to over 600, 000 young people each year, working in state schools and underserved communities. Until midday on 18th June donations made to Chance to Shine will be doubled by the Big Give campaign. Support the charity today and help inspire more young people through cricket.