The Indian women’s team is currently hosting England for a limited-overs series that includes a three-match T20I series. The series got underway on 6th December 2023, England clinched the T20I series by a 2-1 margin. The caravan will now move on to the one-off Test match against England at the DY Patil stadium from 14th December 2023 to 17th December 2023.
On the other hand, the Indian women’s team was last involved in a Test match against Australia in Australia in September 2021. It was India’s first-ever pink ball Test match, the Indian team displayed an impressive performance in the batting department as they declared after posting a massive total of 377/8 in the first innings after being inserted to bat first by the Australian skipper Meg Lanning. The match eventually ended in a draw with Australia at 36/2 in 15 innings in the fourth innings, chasing a target of 272 runs.
When it comes to facing England, the Indian team played a one-off Test match in England in June 2021, the now former skipper and legend Mithali Raj was in charge of the Test side. The Indian team had to follow on while chasing England’s first innings total of 396/9. The Test match eventually, ended in a hard-fought draw courtesy of an inspirational display of resilience and persistence from the all-rounder Sneh Rana and the wicket-keeper batter Taniya Bhatia. The duo stitched a crucial 104-run partnership for the 9th wicket to save the Test match.
The grins say it all! ☺️
Reactions right after Shubha Satheesh, Renuka Singh Thakur & @JemiRodrigues received their #TeamIndia caps respectively from Head Coach Amol Muzumdar, Captain @ImHarmanpreet & vice-captain @mandhana_smriti 🤗 🤝#INDvENG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/4KPKo6so9I
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) December 14, 2023
The Indian Women’s team last played a Test match at home in November 2014 against South Africa. Women in Blue will be playing a Test match at home after 9 years.
Let’s have a look at the three debutants for India in a one-off Test match.
Jemimah Rodrigues:
The 23-year-old middle-order batter made her International debut as an 18-year-old on 13th February 2018 against South Africa. She has represented India in close to 100 matches (89 matches) scoring around 2000 runs (1923 runs) at a strike rate of 112.39 and an average of 30.04 in 79 innings. Her tally of runs includes 10 half-centuries. Her best performance with the bat came on 8th February 2019 against New Zealand when she scored 72 runs at a strike rate of 135.84.
She is one of the most experienced batters in the Indian women’s team in the T20I format. She has scored over 500 runs so far in the ODI format at a strike rate of 72.43 in 24 innings. Her best performance with the bat came on 19th July 2023 against Bangladesh when she scored 86 runs at a strike rate of 110.25.
Jemimah Rodrigues recently led Mumbai to their maiden senior women’s T20 trophy title by defeating Uttarakhand by 6 wickets in the final. She was the leading run-scorer of the tournament scoring 473 runs at a strike rate of 134.75 and a humongous average of 67.57 in 10 innings her tally of runs included three half-centuries and a century. Her best performance with the bat for Mumbai came on 3rd November 2023 against Andhra when she scored an unbeaten 112 at an impressive strike rate of 169.70.
Satheesh Shubha:
The 24-year-old pace-bowling all-rounder represents Karnataka in the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy at the domestic level. She scored 263 runs at a strike rate of 80.42 and an average of 43.83 in 7 innings. Her tally of runs included three half-centuries. Her best performance with the bat for Karnataka came on 31st October 2021 against UP women when she scored 71 runs at a strike rate of 87.65. She has been picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore at her base price of 10 Lakhs for the second edition of the Women’s Premier League.
Renuka Singh:
The 27-year-old right-arm pacer from Himachal Pradesh made a name for herself as a swing queen of the Indian Women’s Cricket team. She made her international debut on 7th October 2021 in a T20I against Australia. She has picked up 38 wickets at an impressive strike rate of 19.7 and an average of 21.13 in 34 innings. Her best performance with the ball came on 18th February 2023 against England when she returned with the match figures (5/15) in her spell.
As far as the ODI format is concerned, she has picked up 18 wickets at an impressive strike rate of 19.3 and an average of 14.88 in 7 innings. Her best performance with the ball came on 4th July 2022 against Sri Lanka when she returned with the match figures (4/28). She hogged the limelight when she ended the Commonwealth Games campaign as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 11 wickets to her name in 5 innings, playing a crucial role in helping India to finish at the podium as they bagged the Silver medal at Birmingham.