Women’s Ashes: Covid hits England camp; nervous 24-48 hours ahead, says Heather Knight

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Just as when England had started their preparation for the Women’s Ashes series in Canberra, England and Wales Cricket Board has revealed that one of the support staff has tested positive for Covid-19.

While the person is in isolation and the rest of the members, including the players, have tested negative in the additional screening since England skipper Heather Knight was aware of the threat that looms for the next few days.

Speaking for the first time after landing in Australia for the series, Knight said there are concerns and anxieties among the group.

“We have had to live under pretty strict protocols once we have arrived,” she said.

“We are prepared for this. I think it’s pretty naive to think we wouldn’t be affected. It’s going to be a nervous 24-48 hours, but tests we’ve done already have come back negative. Fingers crossed.”

Initially, England was supposed to start with the Test match on January 27, 2022, at Canberra, where they are currently staying. Owing to the quarantine rules in New Zealand ahead of the World Cup, the series was preponed a week, with the T20I leg beginning on 20th Jan at Adelaide followed by the Test in Canberra. The staff member, who tested positive, will remain in Canberra as the team travels to Adelaide for the T20Is in the next few days after another round of extensive testing.

Calling the preparation and the lead-up as ‘not ideal’ and ‘pretty average’, Knight said that several unavoidable factors that were not in their control had affected their plans so far.

“For the two weeks, before we left England, we could only train as individuals in our households. It’s not ideal preparation for a series of this magnitude, but it’s been unavoidable. But we have to prepare mentally and physically and try and make the most of what’s been our situation.”  

With England finding out about the reschedule as they reached Australia, Knight said they would have to have an eye on workload management as the Test match would be played between T20Is and ODIs.

“There’s no point in trying to hide behind that. We’ve got the T20Is; we’ve got three days before the Test match. Previously, we thought the Test match was gonna be the first, and we would have had a really good buildup to that. And now, our focus has to be on the T20Is,” she said.

“We need to get the bowlers to try and get the overs in to be ready for the Test match. Obviously, that might mean, during the T20Is, the preparation for some players might be different. They might have to bowl a little bit more than they potentially normally do in a T20I series.”

Knight stressed that although she would want to field the best team every time in the Ashes and the World Cup, the team management would have to be realistic and fiddle around a bit with selections. She said that they had rotated the bowlers during the home season to ensure that everyone got ample experience before travelling for the Ashes, adding, “We have to be flexible. With lots going on at the moment, we will try and get the best team we possibly can and the team that we think will be successful going into the series.”