Captain Heather Knight plays down England’s chances of adding T20 title to 2017 World Cup success

Danni Wyatt pictured playing for the Southern Vipers

Knight, who led England to ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup glory in the 50-over format on home soil in 2017, knows her side have enough talent to compete across 20 overs.

Her squad includes Pompey fan Anya Shrubsole, the player of the match in the 2017 World Cup final, and opening bat Danni Wyatt, who was top runscorer for Southern Vipers in last year’s Kia Woman’s Super League tournament.

Knight is relishing the forthcoming battle with favourites Australia.

Meg Lanning’s side have won four of the last five titles and are currently dominating the Women’s T20I rankings.

Knight’s England, who haven’t won the T20 World Cup since the inaugural tournament more than a decade ago, are aware they are way off from being favourites for the title.

But victory over Australia via a Super Over in the recent tri-series will have given them renewed confidence ahead of their opener against South Africa on February 23.

‘Our first goal is to get out of the group stages,’ said Knight..

‘We’re taking every game at a time because that’s what worked so well for us back in 2017.

‘We definitely won’t be favourites for the tournament – Australia will obviously wear that tag being at home alongside the record they’ve had in T20 cricket.

‘They’ll have to deal with the expectation while we’ll be focusing on our T20 cricket and reaching those semi-finals in Sydney.

‘We learnt a huge amount from the tri-series. We were put under pressure in some really tight games, which is the perfect preparations going into a World Cup.

“We beat Australia in the Super Over and India, but there’s also a lot we want to improve on.

“The 50-over World Cup is a long time ago now. We’re a slightly different team with a different coach and we’ve brought in a few exciting young players who have done really well.

‘From 1-15, we’ve got a squad who can win games of cricket.”

England, who finished the 2018 tournament as runners-up after losing to Australia in the final, beat New Zealand by six wickets in a friendly in Adelaide yesterday.

Knight (45no) and Wyatt (42) helped England storm past the Kiwis’ 134-9 total, where Shrubsole took 2-19.

England will play Sri Lanka in their final warm-up game tomorrow before their T20 World Cup campaign starts against South Africa in Perth next Sunday.