Ashes Test: Australia v England
Venue: Sydney Date: 21-24 January Start time: 2330 GMT

Knight is in line to make her England Test debut on Friday

England women face Australia in a one-match Test series from Friday hoping to retain the Ashes for a third time.

Charlotte Edwards' side first regained the Ashes with victory in a two-Test series in 2005, and went on to win the 2008 one-off Test and draw in 2009.

And England are keen to follow the men's Ashes success with their own at the Bankstown Oval in Sydney.

"We were all really excited to see the men retain it and we got inspiration from that," said batter Heather Knight.

"We want to do the double with the men and the women's so I'm really excited."

Knight is in line to make her debut in Sydney as a replacement for the absent Sarah Taylor, and the 20-year-old told the England and Wales Cricket Board website: "I think it's the pinnacle of any cricketer's career to play in an Ashes Test match so it would mean the world.

"I'm going to hit training hard and then hopefully make my Test debut."

606: DEBATE Can England retain the Ashes?

England go into the match on the back of a 4-1 win over the Aussies in the Twenty20 series - their first limited-overs series win down under.

And Knight is confident the side can adapt to the longer form of the game, saying: "There's a lot of chopping and changing from different forms of the game these days so I'm quite used to it.

"I'm sure we'll talk about Test match cricket and how it's different from T20 and how we are going to approach it."

Spinner Laura Marsh, meanwhile, added: "We don't get to play Test matches that often but to play a Test match against Australia in Australia is really exciting and hopefully we can go out there and we can win the Test match just like the boys have done."

And although another draw will be enough for England to retain the urn, all-rounder Marsh insists they will aim for victory.

"We're used to it really because generally it's just a one-off Test match, but we're just going to go into it positive and try and come out with a win," she added.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version