South Africa vs England women: Heather Knight ready for ODI test having now met the coach

The one-day series against South Africa is the start of a busy year for England Women and is key to the ICC Women’s Championship

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Heather Knight admits England Women’s new era has got off to an unusual start, in that she and other senior members of the squad had never met the coach before they gathered in South Africa last week.

Knight and others such as the captain, Charlotte Edwards and Katherine Brunt had been playing in the Big Bash Twenty20 extravaganza in Australia before England’s tour to South Africa, which begins in earnest today with the first of three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 series. So, they hadn’t had a chance to meet Mark Robinson, the former Sussex coach who took over the national women’s side after Paul Shaw left following last summer’s Ashes defeat.

“It is really nice to get the group together again. It has been a long time since we’ve been together,” Knight said. “It is a bit of an unusual situation starting a tour having not met the coach, but we have had a few sessions and I think it will be good.”

Knight (right) added that she has already seen differences in approach from Robinson, the first coach to come from the men’s game to take charge of the women’s national side.

“To have someone from men’s cricket is definitely not a bad thing – it is just something different, something new,” she said. “It will give us a new perspective and probably push us harder.”

The one-day series against South Africa is the start of a busy year for England Women and is key to the ICC Women’s Championship, a tournament which takes place over two years between 2014 and 2016. The top four sides qualify for the 50-over World Cup, to be held on home soil next year. England are currently fifth.

The Twenty20 series – also three matches long – will serve as a warm-up for the World T20, which will be held in India parallel to the men’s tournament next month.

It means there will be little rest for Knight and the rest of the squad. “After the T20s here, we have 10 days at home and it is straight to India for the World T20,” she said.

“South Africa have improved a lot – I played against some of them in the Big Bash. They were semi-finalists at the last World T20 so we know it will be a tough tour. But we go into every game looking to win and hope that we can.”

Yet more T20 looms on the horizon for English women’s cricket after the India tournament, as on the domestic front the Super League begins this summer.

While Knight insists the competition has “huge potential”, she is cautious about comparing the Super League to the Women’s Big Bash, which had the luxury of large crowds and extensive television coverage by virtue of the fact that it was closely linked to the men’s competition – not to mention the cream of world cricketing talent on show.

The franchises are yet to be decided for the English competition and Knight, whose Hobart Hurricanes side made it to the semi-finals of the Big Bash League, said: “It is going to be a work in progress. The Big Bash had a massive advantage because it could piggy-back on the back of the men’s competition, with ready-made franchises and the venues.

“Ours has huge potential but everyone needs to have some patience with it. The Big Bash had some really good cricket games – it was a very high standard of cricket. It would be good to get close to that [in the Super League], by making sure the best players are playing in it.”