India women to focus on adapting in rare Test match against England

India will play their first red-ball game in two years. England are slightly better off: they have played three in two years

- Aditya Chaturvedi

India have a 15-member squad for the one-off Test against England starting at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday. And the combined number of Tests they have played is 17. And seven of the squad have never donned the whites for the senior India team.

The match comes four days after the T20I series between the teams. It'll be India’s first Test in over two years and their first at home since 2014 when they hosted South Africa in Mysuru. The last time India Women hosted England in a Test was back in 2005 in Delhi.

It’s thus fair to say that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s squad has a daunting task ahead. As promising as the India squad may be, the players switching to a format they have precious little experience of will require a special effort.

Red-ball challenge

At the pre-match media conference on Wednesday, the India captain admitted it would not be easy playing a four-day Test after such a long gap.

“Playing with the red ball will be challenging after all the limited-overs cricket, but our bowlers have had 10-15 days to understand how the red ball behaves. We have tried as much as we could to prepare and now it’s about playing positive cricket,” said Harmanpreet.