The England Cricket Board today announced the fixtures for the women’s team for the summer which includes team India’s tour for the one-off Test Match.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, on International Women’s Day, had tweeted about the arrangement of the longest format of the game between India and England. The ECB has confirmed that the game will be played from June 16 to June 19 followed by a 3-match ODI series (June 27 to July 3) and a 3-match T20I series (July 9 to July 15).
India women tour of England 2021 Announced.
Here’s the complete schedule 👇
📸: PTI pic.twitter.com/H48jzNHTpG
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 13, 2021
England Skipper Heather Knight feels that Test Cricket for women should become a regular routine around the world. She hopes that the upcoming test match would lead to opening the doors for more such opportunities. India hasn’t played a test match in almost 7 years. Though England plays a solitary game of Test against the Aussies during the Ashes, they haven’t faced any other country since 2014.
“Realistically, T20 is the format that is going to grow the women’s game around the world but it is really important we keep Test cricket going,” said the English Captain.
“I’d love to keep playing Test cricket and I’d love to see the multi-format series we have for The Ashes – a Test match, three ODI, and three T20s – as the norm going forward. I’d love to play a Test match in India, as well. I think it would be a massive challenge. One of my proudest moments in an England shirt is scoring a Test century and that speaks for the way Test cricket is seen,” she added.
England Women to play India this summer, starting with Test match followed by ODI and T20 series. #INDvENG #WomensTest @M_Raj03 @Heatherknight55 pic.twitter.com/GQrv5qAdTd
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 13, 2021
After hosting India between June-July, England is set to welcome The White Ferns for an ODI and T20I series. Post these games, they’ll be preparing for the Ashes, where they’ll play against Australia in their next test. Commenting upon the same, Knights said – “To know we have got two Test matches in nine months – the other in the Ashes – is really nice because usually, it is one every two years. I don’t play much Test cricket but when I do, and the girls do, we really enjoy it, it is definitely rated highly among the players. We enjoy the challenge of doing something we don’t do very often.”
A few days ago, Knight had also opened up about Women’s IPL. Supporting what Smriti Mandhana and Ben Stokes talked about the Women’s Premier League in India, she said that it would help a lot in building women’s cricket all around the world.
Here’s the complete fixture of the England Women’s team for the Summer of 2021-
England vs India:
June 16-19: Test vs India, Bristol
June 27: 1st ODI vs India, Bristol
June 30: 2nd ODI vs India, Taunton
July 3: 3rd ODI vs India, Worcester
July 9: 1st T20I vs India, Northampton
July 11: 2nd T20I vs India, Hove
July 15: 3rd T20I vs India, Chelmsford
England vs New Zealand:
Sept 1: 1st T20I vs NZ, Chelmsford
Sept 4: 2nd T20I vs NZ, Hove
Sept 9: 3rd T20I vs NZ, Taunton
Sept 16: 1st ODI vs NZ, Bristol
Sept 19: 2nd ODI vs NZ, Worcester
Sept 21: 3rd ODI vs NZ, Leicester
Sept 23: 4th ODI vs NZ, Derby
Sept 26: 5th ODI vs NZ, Canterbury
I’m a Senior Masters student pursuing Journalism and Mass Communication. An all time Cricket enthusiast. I could never play the game but always loved watching it, and now writing about it!