Heather Knight has undergone surgery on her injured right hip and will continue to be out of action for the foreseeable future. The England women's captain tweeted that she would miss the home series against India in September as well as the WBBL in October-November. She said she was hoping to return to the field by the end of the year.
Knight is already missing the Hundred, where she was expected to lead London Spirit for a second season.
Surgery
— Heather Knight (@Heatherknight55) August 19, 2022
I've had a little clean out of my hip to get me back and running soon. Unfortunately it rules me out of the India series and the WBBL, but I'm aiming to be back by the end of the year . Time to make the most of a bit of time away and bring on the rehab! pic.twitter.com/4Mcwjs2nwN
In Knight's absence, England were led by Nat Sciver at the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022), where they made the knockout stages but were unable to progress further. Australia beat India in the gold-medal match and New Zealand beat England in the bronze-medal match.
Sciver is expected to lead England for the India series - three T20Is and three ODIs, to be played between September 10 and September 24.
Though Knight picked up the injury during the first T20I of the bilateral series against South Africa on July 21, she had initially been named in England's CWG 2022 squad, as captain. But after England's first two games, which she sat out, the team management said that the injury had "failed to settle down as expected."
Knight had injections in her hip joint while sitting out the last two matches of the South Africa series in an effort to recover, but Sciver said after England's first two CWG 2022 games, "She's not in a good place. She's better than she has been in the last few days, still in a bit of pain with her hip."
No replacement was named for Knight, and she stayed on with the squad for the duration of the event - cricket at CWG 2022 ended on August 7. More recently, before the surgery, Knight was a part of the BBC broadcasters' panel for the Hundred.