Knight bats at the ECB’s launch of a national tape-ball competition in Birmingham•ECB/Getty Images
“She had a really good tour, particularly in the T20s off the back of a really good summer last year,” Knight said. “She’s always had the talent, but she’s just starting to work out how to manage herself in the middle and how to convert her talent into performances. That has been pretty cool to watch. She’s someone that you watch and think, ‘how does she play that shot?’
“It’s remarkable, some of the shots she’s played. Obviously she had a brilliant tour, and now for her it’s about building on that and having that consistency. She’ll get a bit of a run in the team, particularly in that T20 opening spot which we haven’t quite nailed on so for her to grasp that [means that] she’ll get a little bit of a run. Hopefully, she continues the form that she’s had.”
Edgbaston have already sold more than 10,000 tickets for England’s opening match of their T20I series against Pakistan, and Knight believes that the ECB’s joint marketing campaign with the men’s series against the same opposition can help build on the commercial success of last summer’s Ashes series.
“It was a really awesome summer to be involved with: you felt the support and momentum for cricket around the country,” she said. “It’s obviously slightly different to an Ashes summer, but the amount of people that came along and – anecdotally – have said, ‘we want to come back, we want to come watch you guys’ has been pretty cool. Hopefully we can put on a show.”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98