Heather Knight retires from cricket after Lord's Test

Heather Knight, England's 2017 World Cup-winning captain and the nation's most capped women's cricketer, announced on Saturday, July 11, 2026, that she will retire from international cricket at the conclusion of the ongoing Test match against India at Lord's. The 35-year-old joins teammate Tammy Beaumont in ending her international career following the historic first women's Test at the iconic London venue.

Knight made her England debut in 2010 and has played a record 320 matches across all formats, scoring nearly 8,000 international runs with six centuries. She became the first English women's player to score hundreds in all three formats of the game after making a T20 century in Canberra in 2020. Her leadership defined an era, as she captained England on 199 occasions from 2016 to 2025, overseeing 134 victories. Her tenure included leading the side to victory over India in the 2017 50-over World Cup final at Lord's. She stepped down from the captaincy following a 16-0 defeat in the multi-format Ashes series in Australia in 2024-25.

In a statement, Knight expressed gratitude for her career. She said she was extremely grateful and privileged for the journey, noting that while it...