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Heather Knight has opted out of playing in next year’s Hundred to take up a role as London Spirit’s first women’s team General Manager.In a move that signals Knight, the former England captain, could be considering taking a larger step back from her playing career after the 2026 T20 World Cup on home soil, her new franchise role involves offering technical support to coaching staff as well as acting as a sounding board for the on-field leadership team from the dugout on match days. She will work closely with Mo Bobat, London Spirit’s Director of Cricket.”I’m delighted to take up this new role with London Spirit,” Knight said. “I have absolutely loved my time at the franchise, as a player and also as a coach in last year’s edition of The Hundred.In addition to the T20 World Cup, England will also host the first Women’s Test match at Lord’s, against India in July, and Knight expects to play a key role in both under her ECB contract, which has another year to run.”I am still very much committed to and passionate about playing for England and Somerset, but this is a huge development opportunity for me,” she added. “It gives me the chance to learn from one of the best minds in the global game, in Mo, and broaden my experiences outside of my playing career. I am so excited for everything to come, on and off the field, in 2026.”Related

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Knight captained London Spirit in the first four editions of The Hundred, including to the 2024 title. Her new off-field role is a progression from the 2025 season when she acted as a team mentor and coach while recovering from a serious hamstring injury.Knight lost the England captaincy in March after a nine-year stint which ended with a winless Ashes tour of Australia at the start of 2025. She tore her hamstring tendon from the bone while batting against West Indies in May which sidelined her for much of the home summer but she recovered to be England’s leading run-scorer at the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. She finished with 228 runs at 48.00 and a strike rate of 85.71 as her side exited in the semi-finals.Knight had foreshadowed a move into sports administration in 2023, when she completed her Masters of Leadership In Sport at the Institute of Sports Humanities, co-founded by former England Men’s national selector Ed Smith. Her dissertation focused on balancing traditional international interests with the growth of domestic franchise leagues in the women’s game.Bobat described Knight as “an asset in every sense of the word”.”Heather’s deep understanding of the women’s game, and of what is required to perform at the highest level make her the ideal person to be our first Women’s General Manager,” Bobat said. “She knows what it takes to win The Hundred and the franchise will benefit from having one of the game’s leading current players in such a key role.”I’m looking forward to working closely with Heather and excited at the prospect of her forming a trusted partnership with our Women’s Head Coach. It’s also great to be able to support Heather with her long-term ambitions and future career transition. I know how passionate she remains about playing for England and her unwavering commitment to representing her country.”

England will go into Thursday’s fifth Test at The Oval without their captain, with Ben Stokes ruled out with a torn shoulder muscle. Ollie Pope will deputise, leading for the fifth time in Tests, and England have made four changes in all from the draw in Manchester, with Jacob Bethell, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton and Josh Tongue all coming into the side.Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are both rested after heavy workloads last week, while Liam Dawson is left out altogether. Bethell and Joe Root are the two spin-bowling options, with Chris Woakes retained to lead an inexperienced seam attack: England’s other three fast bowlers have 18 caps between them.Stokes arrived at The Oval on Wednesday morning hopeful to play as a specialist batter but after discussions with head coach Brendon McCullum and England’s medical team, and 20 minutes of quiet reflection, decided against playing through the pain. “The risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is,” Stokes said. “It’s obviously very, very disappointing.”Related

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England refused to reveal the exact nature of the injury, but it is understood that Stokes has sustained a grade-three tear in a shoulder muscle and that his recovery will take at least six weeks. He was not scheduled to play any more cricket this summer, and is confident that he will be fully recovered ahead of England’s first Ashes Test in Australia on November 21.Stokes bowled 11 overs on the final day of the Manchester Test but grimaced throughout his two spells. He repeatedly clutched his shoulder while bowling and said afterwards that he was “very unlikely” to miss the fifth Test despite struggling with a biceps tendon injury, but woke up feeling “pretty sore” the following morning and scans confirmed a significant tear.His absence is a major blow for England, and for Stokes personally: he is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 17, scored his first Test century in two years in Manchester, has been named Player of the Match in the last two Tests, and his injury represents yet another frustrating setback after two hamstring tears in the second half of last year.Stokes insisted he could not have prevented the injury. “When I’m out on the field, I play to win and give everything I possibly can,” he said. “If I feel there’s a moment in a game where I need to put everything I’m feeling aside, I’ll do that because of how much this team means to me, how much playing for England means to me, how much winning means to me.”Jacob Bethell has found a spot in the XI for the final Test•PA Photos/Getty Images

He also suggested that playing at The Oval could have aggravated the injury to a worrying extent. “It was risk-reward,” Stokes said. “I’ll always try to push myself as much as I possibly can. There’s absolutely nothing I could have done [differently] before. Being a professional sportsman, injuries are part of this game and I can’t do anything about that.”England were planning to head into the fifth Test without a specialist spinner as soon as it became clear that Stokes would not be fit to bowl. Dawson bowled economically in Manchester but failed to take a wicket in 47 second-innings overs, and England are expecting a match dominated by seamers at The Oval, with a healthy covering of live grass on the pitch on Wednesday morning.”The Oval generally plays that it’s your seamers who take the wickets,” Stokes said. “We felt that, here, that gives you the best chance of winning the game. The way it’s played here through the year in the Championship as well: it’s looked very similar to this, and played like that. There’s a bit of intel there, and we wanted to give ourselves four seamers.”Stokes’ absence means Bethell will bat at No. 6, having scored three half-centuries at No. 3 in his maiden series in New Zealand last year. “Being the type of player that he is, where he plays all three formats, it probably allows him to be a bit more versatile with where he bats in the order,” Stokes said. “I’m very confident in his ability. He’s a quality player.”England’s seam attack is their biggest area of concern. Woakes has never bowled more overs in a series than the 167 he has got through over the past month, while Atkinson returns from a hamstring injury that had ruled him out since May. Overton wins his second cap, and first for three years, and Tongue is back after missing out for Archer in the third and fourth Tests.Stokes will remain with the squad this week, as he did last year when he missed four Tests – three against Sri Lanka, and one in Pakistan – through injury. Pope, his vice-captain, will again stand in on his home ground and will look to Shubman Gill for inspiration after struggling to “compartmentalise” his two roles when he deputised last year.”We know that the series is still on the line here,” Stokes said. “It’s been toe-to-toe throughout the whole series so far. We know that India will be coming out fighting, because they don’t want to leave England with a loss. The next best thing for them is a draw, so we’ll be doing everything in our powers to not let that happen.”

England XI for fifth Test against India

1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Jamie Overton, 11 Josh Tongue