Heather Knight calls for Ashes reserve days after successive washouts

Just 4.1 overs were bowled across the second and third games in Adelaide after Australia comprehensively chased down England's total in the opener

Heather Knight has backed the introduction of reserve days into the Women's Ashes schedule, as well as reaffirming her call for five-day Tests, in light of the poor weather that has wrecked the T20 leg of the series.

Just 4.1 overs were bowled across the second and third games in Adelaide after Australia comprehensively chased down England's total in the opener.

"I think reserve days in Ashes and World Cups would be very useful," said Knight, whose side's last visit to Australia – for the 2020 T20 World Cup – was also impacted by rain, with a semi-final washout controversially ending their tournament due to a lack of contingency options in the playing conditions.

"It would be useful it they could be worked in, and potentially a five-day Test match would make things better for everyone – the players, the viewers – and make sure you don't miss the contest that you want to see.

"In a hotly contested series that might be tight, you don't want the weather to be the main story, do you? I'd be open to looking at different things."

Since the white-ball strands were brought in as part of the multiformat revamp ahead of the 2013 series in England, there had never been a no-result in a limited-over Women's Ashes match until this week.

^{For the second successive day, the Adelaide rain prevented a result (Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)}

Ironically, the series wasn't even meant to have started yet, only for it to be brought forward little over a fortnight ago in order to allow the two teams to enter New Zealand for a 10-day quarantine period ahead of the World Cup. Given those stringent regulations, it is unlikely that much could have been done differently on this occasion. England fly out to New Zealand almost immediately after the conclusion of the final ODI against Australia.

Prior to the late schedule alteration, which threw both teams' preparations, the Test match had been due to act as the curtain-raiser. But given the equation after three T20s and "a very frustrating couple of days", it has taken on an extra significance. The dicey forecast for Canberra, though, will add to those prior frustrations, especially given the work that has gone into getting this series on.

"I've been pretty clear that when you play Test matches so rarely, it should be at least five days," said Knight. "But the Test next week is obviously going to be four. If we lose a day to rain – or even half a day – [we've seen] how hard it is in previous Test matches to force a result."

Australia, who hold a 4-2 lead, know that a win in the one-off Test at Manuka Oval will see Meg Lanning's side retain the trophy, while even a draw would mean the tourists could only win the series by whitewashing their hosts in the ODIs – a format in which they had gone unbeaten for 26 games before losing to India earlier this season.

The importance of forcing a victory, then, is clear, and England will have two days to ready themselves once their charter flight lands on Monday. Kate Cross and Lauren Winfield-Hill, neither of whom were involved during the T20s, have been explicitly focusing on their red-ball skills in training, which makes both shoo-ins for selection.

Knight and Lisa Keightley both spoke in the lead-up to the series about how the fixture changes had muddied the waters for the bowling loads of their seamers, given the need to focus on white-ball skills while simultaneously building their stamina ahead of the four-day game. The poor weather has made that challenge even greater.

^{England were knocked out of the T20 World Cup two years ago due to a washout and the lack of reserve day (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)}

Nevertheless, Knight is still bullish about England's chances, and she has refused to look for excuses.

"You can look at it two ways," she said. "You can piss and moan about it and be frustrated and let it get to you, or you can try to accept that it's not in your control and just try to get on with it and make the best of what hasn't been an ideal situation. I'm definitely encouraging the girls to take the second option because the first one isn't going to help us down in Canberra.

"There's no point in being negative about it and feeling the frustration of the last few days. There's literally nothing we can do about it, so we’ve got to make the best of a bad situation and the cards we've been dealt.

"It's been a very strange Ashes series before we'd even started, to be honest. The rain hasn't been ideal, but we knew that things were going to be thrown at us. A lot of the preparation we did in that block in Loughborough was trying to be bomb-proof as a group and trying to adapt to anything that happened.

"We knew a lot would change with Covid – we didn't really consider the weather too much, but that falls in the same category of things that might hit us and might throw us. Making sure we stay focused in unexpected events is something we've talked about."