Heather Knight backs Tammy Beaumont as England 'finisher' at Women's T20 World Cup
"She's a quality batter and she reads situations very well so we think she can be there winning us games of cricket"
Thursday 20 February 2020 07:49, UK
Captain Heather Knight says Tammy Beaumont has the skills to be England's 'finisher' at the Women's T20 World Cup.
With Knight's side hoping to add the T20 title to their 50-over crown, one of the major talking points in the build-up has been the decision to move Beaumont, who has enjoyed plenty of success at the top of the order, down to No 6.
That has meant Danni Wyatt and Amy Jones opening the batting with Nat Sciver and Knight also pushed higher up the order but ahead of their opening game against South Africa on Sunday, the skipper says the team will be adaptable as the tournament progresses.
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"We looked at the players we have and we obviously have a really strong top seven, or eight even if we're playing seven batters, so we felt like the best order for us to win games of cricket was to have Tammy in that No 6 role," Knight told Sky Sports.
"She's obviously had a little bit of success up at the top but we felt that we wanted to push myself and Nat up a little bit higher and we feel like Tammy can do a brilliant job for us in that finishing role at the back end.
"She's a quality batter and she reads situations very well so we think she can be there winning us games of cricket and hopefully getting off to really good starts as well.
"We felt like that was the best balance to win games of cricket for us at this World Cup but we're going to be flexible as well, I think you've seen that in the tri-series and the warm-up games we've played around trying to find the best combinations against different teams and we will be flexible."
The decision to rejig the order has been made with input from new head coach Lisa Keightley. The Australian took over at the start of the year and despite having only a few weeks in the role before the start of a major tournament, she has at least been able to spend a month of that has been spent in Australia with the team and Knight believes her experience will be vital for England.
"I know Lisa really well," she said. "When she worked for England Academy a few years ago, I got to know her reasonably well and I've really enjoyed working with her so far.
"She's quite relaxed which is nice and keeps things very simple as well. She's obviously got a wealth of experience in Australia, playing for Australia for a long time and obviously coaching over here, so that sort of knowledge is going to be instrumental for us.
"Obviously knowledge of the grounds, she knows the WACA very well, where our first game is. I've really enjoyed working with her and that sort of relationship so hopefully we can take this team forward and have some success early in this competition."
One concern for England ahead of the tournament is a "knee niggle" sustained by Sciver but Knight is confident the all-rounder will be fit to face South Africa in Perth and is pleased with the team's preparations.
"I think we've had a really good build up," she added. "We had some really close games against India and Australia, obviously it was disappointing to miss out on that tri-series final through run-rate but having those close games is what you want going into a World Cup.
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"We've been tested, we've had a lot of learnings, which is brilliant, and we feel like now we're building into those warm-up games and then the start of the competition. We've been out here nearly a month and really ready to get going."
Watch every game of the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup live on Sky Sports Cricket.
