Heather Knight is a figure who perfectly defines the growth of women's cricket in England.

After debuting in 2010 at the age of 19, Knight was one of the first players to receive an ECB central contract when they were introduced in 2014.

Over the years, Knight, now 33, has racked up more than 250 international appearances, scored over 6,000 runs and developed in to one of the all-time greats of English cricket.

Given all she has achieved and having recently passed eight years as captain, many would forgive Knight for resting on her laurels, but that is simply something not in her nature.

'I've got lots more to give,' she exclusively tells Mail Sport. 'I'm enjoying things and not looking too far ahead.

'I think it's a good thing to sort of live where you are and not overthink the future too much. 

'I also feel like I'm batting better than ever so I'm around for now, and we will see what happens in the future.'

Knight is speaking to Mail Sport during the Hundred, where she is captain of the Lord's based franchise, London Spirit.

That competition comes after Knight helped to oversee a perfect summer for England, where they won all 13 games they played against Pakistan and New Zealand, providing perfect preparation for this autumn's World T20 in Bangladesh. 

'It's been really good,' she adds. 'I think how we played against New Zealand as well, the nature of the performances was really dominant, ruthless and high skill and it was just awesome. 

'It's funny, really, because, we've built all this momentum ahead of the World Cup and then we've got the Hundred and then a few weeks off.

'You want to want to keep that really good vibe and the way that we are playing going. So I guess we'll have to pick up where we left off when we do get back together and really hit that World Cup very hard.'

England's successful summer comes at a time where the squad has evolved after several legends and stalwarts of the team such as Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Anya Shrubsole have retired over recent years.

In their place, a talented crop of youngsters have emerged and contributed, including the likes of Lauren Bell, Lauren Filer and Alice Capsey, and this is something that Knight has taken great pleasure in.

'Our young players are awesome,' she says. 'They're bringing so much energy, and they're starting to perform really consistently.

'Losing Katherine and Anya over the last couple of years - two amazing players that have been around for a long time and have led that attack - did leave a little bit of a gap. 

'But I think those those young girls coming through are really pushing each other forwards.

'It's a really nice thing to see, and the squads are just getting hard to pick, let alone 11 and we feel like we've got so many options at this stage. 

'That's a really awesome place to be for us, but it does make those selection decisions very tricky.'

Knight is also speaking to Mail Sport as part of the ECB's campaign to promote both schools' and grassroots cricket, particularly after the previous Conservative government promised £35million worth of investment in this field in April.

And for Knight, this is a cause close to her heart. 'I grew up the bottom end of the country in Plymouth and there wasn't always a huge amount of opportunities,' she explains. 

'I went to state school myself and cricket wasn't massively on the radar. We had a cricket pitch that was covered burn marks and cigarettes butts and things like that so it wasn't really used loads, and women's cricket was played even less. 

'So any opportunity that young girls and boys get to get a chance in cricket and get to experience what the games got to offer (is huge).

'Cricket has given me so much and I think everyone should play it really, because it's a pretty cool sport and I love anyone having the opportunity to get involved in the game.'

Since England won the T20 World Cup in 2009, Knight has experienced much heartache in the tournament, with England being runners-up on three occasions, while they have also been knocked out in the semi-finals three times.

But, given their stellar summer, could this year finally be the time to end that drought?

'I hope so,' Knight adds. 'We're going in to the tournament in a really strong place. The way that we're dealing with big moments and being under pressure is really good, so we've got to try and show it.

'It's a tough place to go Bangladesh, and somewhere that we'll have little experience of. 

'But everything we've been doing in the last 18 months has been working towards being ready for that World Cup. I'm just excited to get going and I'm really looking forward to it.'

It promises to be a busy winter for Knight and England with the Ashes then coming around early in the New Year.

England will be hoping to build on their stunning performances last summer where they won both the ODI and T20I series against their arch-rivals to secure a draw overall after Australia narrowly won the Test match.  

And for Knight, the blockbuster showdown is something that she is desperate to add to her list of triumphs, particularly with Australia having held the urn since 2015.

'It was so fun to be involved with last summer,' she says. 'The home crowd really got behind us and coming back from a tough deficit, I was super proud of how we went about it.

'To beat the world champions in both formats gave us a huge amount of confidence as a team and has built that belief that we can compete and be better than them on our day.

'It's just making sure that our day is as much as possible, and trying to play our best cricket as much as we can.'

Heather Knight was speaking as part of the ECB’s latest campaign to support more people to find their way to play cricket, no matter if that is at home, in school or in the community. More information on the campaign and local opportunities to play cricket can be found at www.ecb.co.uk/play.