India tour is going to be valuable as T20 World Cup will offer similar conditions: Heather Knight

England’s women’s captain Heather Knight reckons that the T20 series in India is significant because.

It will demonstrate how the young visiting players perform in situations comparable to what the squad would face in Bangladesh during next year’s T20 World Cup. India and England are set to face off in a three-match T20 series, starting on Wednesday.

“I learned a lot about my game playing in Indian conditions, it really tests you as a cricketer, your skill level and how you do with the noise and the heat,” Knight told reporters ahead of England’s training session on Tuesday.

“It is a really good place to accelerate development, to see how our young players cope with it. We have got a T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later on in the year (2024) so this tour is going to be valuable in terms of having similar conditions.”

Bangladesh is set to host the T20 World Cup in September and October 2024.

“We have had some really good T20 games against them. They have got some world-class players in and in home conditions they are going to be tough (to face),” Knight said.

Many members of England’s T20I squad landed in India two days before the series, which will be contested at Wankhede Stadium on December 6, 9, and 10. Despite their strong record against the hosts, Knight believes her squad would struggle to silence the Indian audience because the presence of ‘world-class’ players makes India a ‘great’ team.

England have seven wins in nine T20Is against India in their backyard and overall 20 wins from 27 matches, but Knight said it does not feel like they have a comforting factor as far as knowledge of conditions is concerned. “It feels like a long time actually since we have been to India, before that 2019 series we had a lot of tours here,” she said.

“It is how the Future Tours Programme pans out, and obviously, playing another WPL here in the calendar, there is going to be a lot of cricket here which is brilliant.”