Heather Knight laments being handed used Bristol pitch for England v India Test: "We tried to get it changed"

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England captain Heather Knight has revealed her disappointment at the news the one-off Test against India at Bristol will be played on a used pitch.

The surface that will stage the game is the same that Gloucestershire and Sussex Sharks' T20 Blast match was played on last week (June 11).

In anticipation of England and India's first meeting since 2014 starting on Wednesday (June 16), there has been plenty of discussion around whether the volume of women's red-ball cricket can be increased in the future.

This is India's first Test for seven years while England were last in action in this format back in 2019 against Australia in the women's Ashes.

"It is a used pitch," sighed Knight. "It was used for a Gloucestershire T20 match last week which I guess is not ideal we would prefer to be on a fresh one but it is what it is.

"We don’t know how it's going to play - obviously slightly different with it being used. 

"We are confident we have the squad and XI we are going to pick to win.

"We found out last week which we tried to get changed but it was a little bit too late for that to happen. 

^{Australia played out a draw at Taunton in England's last Test outing}

"Obviously it’s unfortunate it’s not ideal we would much rather be on a fresh one. But we don’t know yet how it’s going to play – it still could play very well.

"Generally at Bristol, you can look at the deck and it looks not great but it actually plays very well it is not ideal but it is what it is and we are going to have to perform on the wicket we are given."

It will be hoped that the wicket plays better than the used Taunton surface, which 40 days previous had staged Afghanistan and New Zealand's men's 50-over World Cup match, did two years go when Australia secured a draw to retain the women's Ashes.

"There was a lot of talk about the pitch [at Taunton] and it didn't actually do too much," added Knight. "I'd much prefer to play on a fresh wicket. 

"It is not much that we can change now, there is no point looking into too much how it will play. 

"We'll try to adapt as much as we can to the situation. We've got to go out there now and get our head around playing on the pitch we have been given.

"We can't moan about the pitch because that is not going to put us in the best place as a team to go out and win this match."

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