Knight works to improve his limited appeal (15 January 1999)

15 January 1999

Knight works to improve his limited appeal

By Paul Newman in Melbourne

NICK KNIGHT is England's answer to Sanath Jayasuriya and Adam Gilchrist, an opener capable of dominating an attack in one-day internationals and exploiting the first 15-overs fielding restrictions to the full. His challenge is to reproduce that form in the Test arena.

Knight has an incredible one-day record, standing at third place in the all-time leading batsman's list before this triangular series against Australia and Sri Lanka with an average of 47.32 from 28 matches. With a minimum requirement of 20 innings, only Michael Bevan (58.29) and Zaheer Abbas (47.62) stood above him and Knight's return of 30 and 40 in the opening two matches here before today's encounter against Australia in front of a packed MCG emphasises that his well-being is crucial to England's World Cup hopes.

"I have a very specific role in the first 15 overs, so I've tried to adopt a way of playing during those," said Knight. "I wouldn't say what I do in those overs is me as a player. I'd say that's me making sure I do my job for England. Before the 15-over rule, I would never have been seen running down the pitch and trying to hit an opening bowler back past his head. It's completely different to a Test."

And there lies the rub. Knight's career has failed to take off at the ultimate level despite a Test century against Pakistan in 1996 and he spent the close season - apart from breaking off to get married - attending to a technique that has proved to be vulnerable at Test level.

"I don't go along with the view that I'm better at one-day cricket," said Knight. "I'm desperate to get back in the Test side and I have huge belief in my own ability, but I'm not blind. I know I'm not the perfect technician. I've spent the last three months in England working at it - actually, it's more like three years - and there's still work to come. But I'm basically trying to get my back foot back and across more at the point of delivery, which helps me get into line a bit more easily and ultimately should mean that I can play a bit straighter."

For now, limited-overs cricket takes precedence until June 20 and Knight's chances of usurping Mark Butcher or Mike Atherton at the top of the England Test order - or perhaps a berth at No 6 - must go on the back burner. It is clear, however, that he is not prepared to settle for the limited appeal of being in the World Cup spotlight.

"When you get into bad habits, it's hard to get out of them but I believe if I can get this right, I can go a lot further in the game," said Knight. "In the meantime, I'll carry on playing the one-day way and hope my success continues."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)