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'The Big Test'-- Women's version!

As the Indian women’s cricket team gears up for the Test match against England, my mind drifts to early February, to a time when I was swallowing every bit of information Cricinfo had to offer. I navigated my way to the Women’s Cricket page and the first article that showed up was titled ‘Indian women to play Test in England’. My heart raced and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I quickly opened the article and read it… Not once, not twice, but all of five times. Each time I read it, the excitement grew. Could it really be? A Test match after eight years? And in England at that? I must be dreaming! The news just couldn’t get any better.

Turns out I wasn’t dreaming after all, and the Indian women are scheduled to play a solitary Test match in Wormsley followed by three one day games at Scarborough. The squad landed in England a couple of weeks ago. Of the 16, only three have any experience playing Test cricket. All three though, have played Test cricket in England and tasted success there too. Captain Mithali Raj, Vice- Captain Karuna Jain, and spearhead Jhulan Goswami were all part of India’s tour to England in 2006, when they defeated the hosts 1-0 in a two Test series. Goswami terrorized the English girls, taking 10 wickets in the second Test at Taunton. She returns as the leader of the attack, rejuvenated and ready to scatter the stumps again. Mithali Raj, too, has some fond memories of Test matches in England. She scored a double hundred on her first (Test) tour there and has continued to get runs in those conditions ever since—the recent match against the MCC is proof enough. Wicket-keeper, Karuna Jain has the advantage of having played all her Test matches against England. She has been in and around the Indian squad for quite a while now and her immense experience at the domestic level means she knows her game inside out.

Though none of the others have played a single Test match, they all have some international experience under their belts. Apart from Jhulan Goswami, Niranjana Nagarajan, Shubhlakshmi Sharma and Ekta Bisht have all played in England before. Niranjana, in particular, will have warm memories of her previous tour to the UK—she picked up 3 wickets at Lord’s, followed by her career-best figures of 3 for 24 at Truro. The rest of the bowlers, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, have made promising starts to their careers and definitely have the ability to step up to the plate when they are called upon. The bowling unit may not look as strong as the days of Neetu David, Jhulan Goswami, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Rumeli Dhar, Deepa Marathe and the others, but they are all capable of delivering the goods.

The batting will depend heavily on the fortunes of the captain. Poonam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur and Karuna Jain will provide valuable experience to the line-up as well. Southpaws Smriti Mandhana and Thirush Kamini will look to make their mark outside the sub-continent with some meaningful contributions. VR Vanitha, Swagatika Rath, and Sushma Verma will all be itching to get into the action and stamp their authority on the English girls—aggression is their way to go! 
(All the batters showed promise in the warm up game against the England Academy squad. They will be looking to carry on from where they left off).


All in all it should be a pretty interesting series. The last time India toured England, they played bravely, coming close to beating the hosts. Having led the one day series 2-0, they lost the next 3 and the series too. Let’s hope this time things turn out differently. I for one can’t wait for the Test to begin—if only they were telecasting it!

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