Former England captain Heather Knight to retire after Lord’s Test against India

This has been a summer of farewells in women’s cricket. Heather Knight is the latest one to say goodbye.

Knight, the first woman to hit hundreds in all the three formats, will not play for England after the historic Lord’s Test against India. She made the announcement midway through the match.

It is perhaps fitting that her last international game came at Lord’s. She had told this correspondent how much she loved the iconic ground during an interview at Guwahati a few years ago. “Lord’s is my favourite ground,” Knight had said. “It is just five or six miles away from where I live.”

And it was at Lord’s her greatest moment came, in 2017, when she led England to the World Cup triumph, after beating India in the final. Her final innings didn’t go the way she would have wanted it, though. She could only make 13, and for once, she could not take England out of trouble.

“I am extremely grateful and privileged to have gone on the journey that I have been on as an England cricketer,” said Knight, who scored more than 8,000 international runs. “It’s hard to walk away because the dressing room and the people in the dressing room have been a constant in my life for 16 years.”