'One of the girls again': Heather Knight on moving on from captaincy

Heather Knight is looking forward to "being one of the girls again", closing nine years' worth of necessary distance between her and her team over the course of her England captaincy.

Speaking for the first time since her long tenure as leader ended more than six weeks ago in the aftermath of England's 16-0 Ashes defeat, Knight said she was still adjusting to the idea of simply being a player in the side.

"Lots has changed," Knight said. "I've just been reflecting on a really enjoyable nine years as captain. I really loved it and I'm really excited for the next chapter as well. I've had a bit of time to let the news digest and move forward and am quite excited for what's to come. I'm looking forward to having a little bit more time on my hands being one of the girls again. I'm feeling pretty positive and obviously looking forward to moving on.

"As captain, naturally there's a little bit of water between you and the sides because you're involved in decision making and things like that. I have a little bit more time on my hands to hang out with people and things like that, so that's quite exciting.

"There's certainly bits of the captaincy that I'll miss, but there's certainly things I won't miss as well. I love captaining and I think it brought the best out of me as a person and as a player. So I guess now the new challenge for me is how I get my best out of myself when I'm not captain and when I'm playing."

Nat Sciver-Brunt has replaced Knight as England captain and earlier this week, in her first public engagement since her appointment and returning from maternity leave, said she was keen to pick her predecessor's brain when the squads convene for their upcoming white-ball series with West Indies.

"I'm going to be signing her up for a few coffees when we get onto tour and just getting into a few details of captaincy and how she found it," Sciver-Brunt said. "We've had a great working relationship together, obviously being her vice-captain, and I don't see that changing really going forward."

Apart from some congratulatory messages, Knight said she had only spoken briefly to Sciver-Brunt, who recently brought baby son Theo into the national performance centre at Loughborough to meet the team he and Sciver-Brunt's wife Katherine, the former England seamer, will be touring with.

Knight said: "I wish her best of luck. I said, 'do it in your way.' I'm really pleased for her that she's got this opportunity. I'm there if she needs me. I'm always there as a voice. I'm very much going to get in the background and be there if needed to be called on by whoever and just look forward to focusing on the batting and supporting Nat and the team in any way that I can."

Knight played under the captaincy of Phoebe Litchfield at Sydney Thunder in the most recent edition of the WBBL and featured in the first six rounds of the Metro Bank One Day Cup domestic competition for Somerset, where Sophie Luff is skipper.

Moving to the top of the order, Knight has scored 244 runs at an average of 40.66 and strike rate of 90.37 for her county. She has also taken four wickets with her off-spin, including 3 for 7 against Essex, coming out of bowling "semi-retirement" with new England Women's head coach Charlotte Edwards' planning to deploy her more with the ball.

Knight could be swung into bowling action early for England. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone played her first domestic game of the season for Lancashire on Wednesday following a knee injury which Edwards said had ruled her out of selection for the West Indies series and seamer Sciver-Brunt will play as a batter only for the start of the summer as she continues her recovery from an Achilles problem. Seamers Freya Kemp and Lauren Bell are also out with back and knee injuries respectively and will miss the three T20Is and three ODIs against West Indies starting on May 21.

"When I played the first game for Somerset, it was the first time I'd bowled in a match in a year," Knight said. "I'd sort of semi-retired, I guess. I've enjoyed it. It's another thing to get stuck into in the field.

"I'm probably a bit more competitive when I bowl than when I bat. I like to be quite calm when I bat, but when I bowl I probably try and get in a little bit of a battle and a little bit of a fight because that gets the best out of me. I'll always see myself as a part-timer I think, and try and do a role when I can. But I do enjoy it and I've been asked to bowl a little bit more. If I can provide an option and bowl a few overs down, I'll be completely happy."

Joe Root made a successful transition from Test England captain to batter when he stepped down in 2022 after five years in the role.

"He was pretty good as captain, to be honest, had a pretty good record, to be fair," said Knight during a community event as part of the Net Gains initiative. "I think that gets missed a little bit. I'll probably have a better record when I was captain - I've just done it for a long time - but it is now finding the best way to get the best out of me is a batter.

"I'm just looking forward to enjoying my cricket. Not that I didn't enjoy captaincy, I did really enjoy it, but just being a player and trying to contribute to team wins as much as I can."