London, July 12, 2026
World Cup-winning England captain Heather Knight has announced that she will retire from international cricket after the ongoing one-off Test match against India at Lord’s, bringing curtains down on her 16-year career.
Knight made her England debut in 2010 and leaves the game as England women’s all-time record appearance maker, with 320 caps (15 Tests, 160 ODIs and 145 T20Is) to her name, scoring 7,988 international runs, with six centuries. Her maiden IT20 ton, at Canberra in 2020, saw her become the first English player to score hundreds in all three formats of the game.
Knight captained the side on 199 occasions from 2016 to 2025, overseeing 134 victories – most famously at Lord’s in 2017 as her team won the ICC Women’s World Cup – before standing down in the wake of last winter’s Ashes loss in Australia. She will join long-time teammate Tammy Beaumont in retirement.
“I’m extremely grateful and privileged to have gone on the journey that I have been on as an England cricketer. 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, and the memories and the experiences and the people have helped shape me become who I am today, but I’m really content with this decision, and I’m really excited for what’s next,” Knight said in a statement shared by ECB.
“Growing up as a little girl from Devon and playing with the boys, I never thought I’d get to experience this. It feels right to leave the game with this historic test at Lord’s. It’s been an amazing 16 years, and I feel so lucky,” she added.
Including the title-winning campaign in 2017, Knight appeared in four ODI World Cups, finishing as their third-highest run-getter in both white-ball formats. In 2020, she became the first English player – male or female – to hit an international century in all three formats.
In December last year, Knight was appointed general manager of the London Spirit women’s team, opting out of playing the 2026 edition of the Women’s Hundred.
In the ongoing Test agianst India, Knight scored 6 in the first innings.(Agency)
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