Follow UsIt’s nearly been a decade since the Indian Women last played a Test match at home — against South Africa in Mysore in November 2014 — but the wait is all set to come to an end as the Women in Blue, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, will be taking on England in a one-off Test in Navi Mumbai, starting Thursday (December 14th).
India slipped to a 2-1 defeat in the T20I series played entirely at the Wankhede but the one-off Test provides an opportunity for the hosts to not only avenge the T20I loss, but tune up ahead of the Australia series starting in a week’s time.
Smriti Mandhana, India’s vice-captain, was an 18-year-old rookie the last time India played a home Test but in the 9 years that have passed, she’s transformed into not just a senior but a potential all-time great.
However, according to Mandhana, it’s not just her career that’s witnessed an upturn. The vice-captain believes that Women’s Cricket, as a whole, has noticeably gone up in popularity in the last half a decade or so, with the packed crowds for the T20Is at the Wankhede serving as evidence for the same.
“A lot has changed in Women’s cricket since our last home Test back in 2014. Especially since 2017,” Mandhana said in the pre-match press conference of the one-off Test on Tuesday (December 12th).
“We could also see that change at the Wankhede when we were playing T20s. The kind of crowds that came in, the kind of support we’re getting, not to forget the pay equality. Definitely women’s cricket is on the rise.
“Really excited to play Test cricket again on home soil. Representing India in whites is a different feeling altogether.”
The one-off Test starting Thursday will only be the third Test the Indian Women will be playing in the past two years, but they’ll go back-to-back immediately, with them scheduled to host Australia in another one-off Test at the Wankhede, starting December 21.
Mandhana hoped for the Indian side playing consecutive Tests to be a trend, going forward.
“The games in England and Australia proved to be a great experience for us, in terms of playing Tests. We will now be playing two Tests in the span of 15 days and I think this is the first time we’re going to be playing back-to-back Tests. That’s really exciting for us. Hopefully we can get a lot more of these series (going forward),” the Indian vice-captain said.
With the hosts not having played a Test in over two years, it’ll be a stiff challenge to get accustomed to the rigours of Test cricket - both the mental and physical aspect.
Mandhana admitted that it’ll be a challenge for the side to get used to the intensity of Tests but asserted that the team has consciously focused on doing a lot of mental preparation in lead-up to the four-day game.
“Definitely it requires both aspects -mental and physical. Our bodies are not used to playing four back-to-back days of cricket because we generally play T20s and ODIs a lot more,” Mandhana said.
“More than the physical part, it’s the mental part that will be challenging - you’ll have to stay tuned in for four full days and the way you’ll bat will also change. So yes, we’ve done a lot of mental preparation leading up to the game.”
Mandhana, Harmanpreet and Rajeshwari Gayakwad were all part of the XI that played the last home Test in 2014 but the vice-skipper believes that more than the seniors, it’ll be head coach Amol Muzumdar who will prove to be a real guiding light for the younger players in the squad. Muzumdar has played 171 first-class matches and Mandhana believes that his red-ball experience will be a huge boon for all the Indian players.
“We have an experienced coach in the form of Amol (Muzumdar) sir, who has played plenty of four-day cricket. More than the senior players in the side, he has a lot more experience when it comes to red-ball cricket.
“So there’s no doubt that a lot of the younger players will be picking his brain heading into the Test. We ( the senior players) will also try to guide the youngsters, that’s one of our responsibilities as a senior player - to be ready to help at all times. “
The T20I series proved to be an unsuccessful one for the hosts but Mandhana believes that the momentum the side gained by winning the third T20I will give the team plenty of confidence heading into the one-off Test on Thursday.
“There are a lot of takeaways. It was a pretty young team. We had a lot of learnings. Lot of notes on how to apply ourselves. They’d won the series but we knew it was important to win the last T20I because we would get some momentum going into the Tests and we managed to do that. That gives the dressing room a lot of confidence. I don’t think we have to stress too much on that. It’s a different format,” the Indian vice-captain said.