After a long wait, India will play their first Test match since 2014 as they take on England for a one-off Test. The match begins on June 16th and will be played in Bristol.
India had announced 18-member squad for the Test and among 18 members only eight of them has Test experience. Of course, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami has played 10 Test matches each and are the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker among the players available in this Test.
England, on the other hand, have included a couple of new faces and one of them is youngster Emily Arlott. The pacer had impressed everyone with her line and length in the on-going RHF Trophy. However, she is unlikely to play in the contest considering the experience available in the England line-up. Among the 15-members announced, 11 of them has played at least one Test.
Katherine Brunt, Kate Cross will lead the bowling attack and the team will be glad to have Anya Shrubsole back who had missed the New Zealand series recently.
India:
-Smriti Mandhana was a rookie when she played Test series for India. Now, it is all different and she will open the innings for the team and will hold the key here.
-Punam Raut is likely to play ahead of Shafali Verma considering the experience. Raut has played a couple of Test matches for India. However, India might opt for both players with Shafali Verma opening the innings and Punam Raut batting in the middle order.
-Mithali Raj will be playing at number three and she has an excellent record against England including a doubleton.
-Harmanpreet Kaur, interestingly, is one of the leading wicket-takers in Tests for India and she has nine wickets from three innings.
-Three players among Deepti Sharma, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav are likely to play in this contest.
-Since this will be a pace friendly track, India might go in with more number of pacers with Jhulan Goswami leading the attack.
-Taniya Bhatia will make a comeback to the Indian team and is likely to make her Test debut in this contest.
India probable Playing XI:
Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav/Radha Yadav/Ekta Bisht, Pooja Vastrakar/ Arundati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues/Priya Punia, Punam Raut/ Shafali Verma, Taniya Bhatia
England:
-England have played three Test matches since 2014.
-Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont will lead the batting attack for the team here. Nat Sciver will provide the all-round option while Katherine Brunt will lead the bowling attack.
-Tammy Beaumont who is in excellent form at the moment will be the player to watch out for here along with Amy Jones who has done well in the RHF Trophy. Also, Lauren Winfield-Hill will be opening the innings alongside Beaumont.
-Kate Cross is likely to play in this contest because of her experience.
-The team might look to add an extra pace option and they might go for Arlott considering her current form.
England probable playing 11:
Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Heather Knight, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver, Sophia Dunkley/ Fran Wilson, Georgia Elwiss/ Emily Arlott, Katherine Brunt, Anya Shrubsole, Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross
Stats:
-India are closing in for their 4th consecutive Test win which will be a record and the team is looking for a 4th consecutive series win as well.
-India and England have played 13 matches with India winning two of them to England’s one.
-India’s both wins came in England.
-England’s only win came in 1995 where the team won by just two runs.
-Jhulan Goswami has 40 wickets in her Tests so far and can get to her 50th wicket here.
-Mithali Raj could move to 2nd in the list of most runs by Indian cricketer in Women’s Test. She has 663 runs. Shantha Rangaswamy has scored 750 runs and is in the 2nd spot.
