Former India captain and now the BCCI Apex Council member Shantha Rangaswamy feels that there should be a domestic pink-ball test before the Indian team flies to Australia for their day-night pink-ball game. This came in after Cricket Australia announced the schedule for the India tour of Australia.
“BCCI has been planning on certain tournaments for women cricketers in the last year. But time and again plans have gone haywire because of the pandemic. It is heartening to note that the board has planned a Test during the Indian women’s tour of England,” Rangaswamy told PTI.
“I firmly believe the ultimate barometer is the longest format. To add to this, a day-night Test against Australia has also been announced which should be highly appreciated. However, as Indian women don’t play red-ball cricket even in the domestic circuit, it is advisable for the BCCI to conduct a pink-ball tournament in India before the players embark on the journey to Australia,” she added.
India women will be touring Australia in the month of September for an ODI series, a D/N Test, and a T20 series. The historic D/N Test match will be played at the WACA ground in Perth, which will also be the first time in 15 years that India meets Australia in Australia for a Test.
Before the Australia tour, India will be touring the UK to face off against England women for a one-off red-ball Test, a three-match ODI, and as many T20Is. But because the red-ball events have not been conducted in domestic cricket since 2018, it is going to be a difficult task for the Mithali Raj-led Test side.
As a matter of fact, even the men’s team players had played the Duleep Trophy tournament before their first D/N game. And because the women will be playing the pink ball in their first-ever D/N Test, it is going to be tough for them to compete without having a similar event in advance.
“It is also nice to know the Indian men will be playing in Sri Lanka (in July). It will be good if a women’s team is also sent to Sri Lanka. This will be a good way of increasing the standard of bench strength. I am making all these suggestions as a former cricketer,” Rangaswamy suggested.
(Source: Press Trust of India)
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