Knight targets Lord’s glory after injury scare

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England skipper Heather Knight may have feared that she would become the latest World Cup metatarsal fracture victim in a country all too familiar with that sort of drama.

The skipper suffered the injury in the build up to the tournament but has been pronounced fit and participated in a warm-up game in Derby against India.

Knight said ahead of the tournament: “When I first discovered that I was injured, there are always those horrible thoughts that go through your head that you’re going to miss the World Cup, which wasn’t that nice.

“After that we got a plan together and realised it was going to be tight but I was always confident I was going to make it back.

“It’s frustrating, I’m probably not the best injured person and the best at sitting still and doing what I’m told.

“But I’ve been able to do quite a lot and sometimes when you’re watching, you pick up things that you don’t really see when you’re engrossed in the game so that’s been quite good to do that.

“It’s probably given me a bit of mental freshness as well. It’s not been ideal but there are some positives to take and the main thing is to make sure I’m ready for that tournament come June 24.”

Knight is looking forward to what promises to be the biggest Women's World Cup ever with viewership boosted by live streams on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

The women's game has been boosted by the success of T20 tournaments like the Women's Big Bash and the Kia Super League in England.

She added: “It’s going to be a brilliant tournament, the support we have had from the tournament, I think it’s going to be the most visible and supported Women’s World Cup we’ve had.

“In terms of the cricket, the standard of teams has definitely improved. There are a lot more players from different countries playing in the Big Bash and the Super League, playing against and with international teammates so I think it’s going to be a really good tournament.

“There are a lot of exciting players in every team and we’ll look to try to do the best we can and hopefully be in with a good chance of winning it.

“The girls are all really excited, it’s a once in a career sort of thing to play in a home World Cup. That final at Lord’s is a massive carrot, you have to play well to get there but hopefully we can make the most of home support.

“When you play at home, you have those little windows to get away and catch up with people a little bit more. Hopefully it will work in our favour a little bit. We know the conditions really well, we’ve played at a lot of the grounds over the last few years so hopefully we can use that to our advantage.

“We’ll take confidence from the fact that teams have done so well in the past. We had an England team dinner a couple of months ago which involved all men’s and women’s cricketers and we met a lot of the 1993 World Cup-winning team so we heard their stories and some brought their gold medals to the dinner which was nice and should give us some added inspiration for the tournament.”

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