England looking to successfully defend Women's World Cup having beaten India in the final at Lord's in 2017; Heather Knight's side start campaign against Australia, just weeks after being thrashed by same side in The Ashes; watch every World Cup game live on Sky Sports from March 4
Friday 25 February 2022 17:36, UK
England captain Heather Knight says her side "have a point to prove" when they face Australia in the Women's World Cup having been thrashed by the same side in the Ashes.
Knight's team lost 12-4 to Australia in the multi-format series across January and February, with the only points they accrued coming from two rained-off T20 internationals and a draw in the standalone Test match.
England - who beat India in the 2017 World Cup final at Lord's - begin their title defence against Australia on Saturday, March 5, live on Sky Sports from 12.30am.
Knight believes her side can take positives from the way they came through "big moments" during their success on home spoil five years ago
"We've got Australia first and it's clear that we've got a bit of a point to prove as a side," she told reporters on Friday.
"Australia are going to go in as favourites with the Ashes series we've just had against them but I think it should give us a lot of experience of what it takes to be successful in these events.
"Sometimes it's just about getting over the line and I think that's what we did so well in 2017.
"We just were able to win those games that were really tight, we were able to keep our composure in the big moments and deal with everything else that comes with a World Cup.
"Five years is quite a long time and Australia have been the outstanding team within that period so rightfully I think they deserve that favourites tag but I certainly believe as a side on our day we can beat them."
England lost each of the three Women's Ashes ODIs, by 27 runs, five wickets and eight wickets respectively, as Australia made it 29 wins in their previous 30 one-day internationals.
Knight said: "I think it's really important that we're able to park that and also realise that we haven't become a bad side overnight and we're still a very good ODI team," she said.
"I think the girls have actually digested and parked the Ashes quite well, we've had a bit of time off to get some headspace. There'll be good energy around the group I'm sure and completely looking forward to that first World Cup game."
Knight admits she is not expecting a "Covid-free" World Cup with the number of coronavirus cases rising in New Zealand due to the Omicron variant.
The ICC announced on Thursday that teams could fulfil fixtures with just nine players if they so wished, with their sides supplemented by two female members of support staff acting as substitute fielders.
Knight added: "It's unlikely it's going to be a Covid-free World Cup, although obviously that's the hope. I guess it's in place in case something does go wrong and hopefully it doesn't.
"We're here now, we've done the quarantine, albeit it's never ideal to have to quarantine but it's been done. We've got to a place where the restrictions that we're living under are manageable.
"For players here, we want to compete, we want to be successful in a World Cup and that's going to be our primary focus."
Watch the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup live on Sky Sports from Friday, March 4. Coverage of the tournament opener - hosts New Zealand vs West Indies - gets underway at 12.30am on Sky Sports Cricket. England vs Australia is live from 12.30am on Saturday, March 5.
