"Sophia's going to open the batting," Knight said. "She moved up to three last year, was brilliant, really successful, made an impact, so she's going to move up to open and do exactly how she has done in the ODI team at three.

"We want to maximise the powerplay and that was a change we made with Sophia moving up to three last year to try and take on the powerplay a little bit more. But with Sophia, she's a proper batter as well. She's not just a little pinch-hitter at the top."

"Their partnership at Lord's was outstanding," Knight said. "I thought that probably won us the game, the way they started, Danni in particular taking on the game, and Sophia plays that role so brilliantly for us.

"Naturally she scores quite quickly so she can score big runs as well. It's for her to play her natural game and put the bad balls away and then also try and put pressure back on the bowler, maybe not quite at the tempo she does in T20 but that's the logic behind it."

"She's obviously very attacking and she's not always going to be Mrs. Consistent and that's not the role we want her to play, we want her to go and take the game on and do exactly what she did the other night," Knight said. "I think she'll become more consistent as she goes on, but she's only 18 and the talent that she's got is unbelievable.

"I was really pleased with her. Obviously she found it a bit tough leading into it, hadn't performed the way she wanted to, so for her to come in and do that and win a key game is a really good sign."

"Potentially we see her as someone that can disrupt a little bit and bowl quick in those middle overs and try and take wickets," Knight said. "She knows the ground very well and she's really exciting. She's still quite raw, you saw that in the Test match, but the way she played even surprised me, how she rose to the occasion and just made things happen every time she bowled.

"It felt like something was going to happen and that was exactly the role we gave to her, very clear, to run in, bowl fast and try and make an impact. That's what she did and that's the role if she gets in the 11 that we see her playing in this ODI series."

England haven't been afraid to try new things in a bid to throw the Australians off course and Knight believes such a mentality shift is beginning to bear fruit. But with Australia on a 15-game winning streak in ODIs and the hosts needing to win all three if they are to win the Ashes while their opponents need to win just one to retain them, she expects a tough contest.

"It's things like picking Lauren Filer in a Test match when she's completely unknown, just because she can bowl quick and try and shake things up and try and make an impact," Knight said. "Doing things a little bit differently, like using [offspiner] Charlie Dean first over [at Lord's] just to do things that the Australians don't expect and things that we feel are good things to do tactically and good things for us as a group.

"The mentality is probably the most important thing and trying to chase a very, very good team that have had a lot of success, we feel like we have to try and maximise how we do things as much as we can, and try and disrupt what's a very good thing."