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Following Jos Buttler’s shocking decision to step down as England’s white-ball captain, Heather Knight has also left her role as the captain of the England women’s team. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed this on Saturday, March 22. With this, Knight will step down from the role, ending her nine-year stint at the helm.
During her reign at the helm, Knight captained England Women in 199 matches since 2016. She even led her team to a home World Cup victory in 2017 and two other ICC tournament finals. She took England Women to 134 wins, which is second on the list of England Women’s all-time most successful captains.
Captaining my country has been the biggest honour of my life: Heather Knight
The 34-year-old also led the team to a record-breaking run of eight consecutive ODI series wins, including Australia’s defeat in 2023 home Ashes. "Captaining my country for the last nine years has been the biggest honour of my life and I will look back on my tenure with an enormous sense of pride. I have loved the challenge of leading the team, but all good things come to an end and it's time for me to go back into the ranks and focus on being the best batter and teammate that I can be for the team,” Knight said, as mentioned in ECB’s statement.
"Winning the ICC Women's World Cup on home turf at Lord's in 2017 will always be a huge highlight, but being a part of the huge steps forward made in the women's game off the pitch brings me just as much pride...Thank you to all the players and staff, who have given it everything along the way,” she added. "I have loved being England Captain, it's been the most rewarding period of my career, but for now I'm excited to focus on my batting and supporting the team and the new captain in the best way I can," Knight concluded.
With Heather Knight’s stint at the helm over, the ECB has decided to appoint a new captain. The ECB confirmed that the new name will be announced soon.
