Image Credit- ECB
India and England prepare for a Test match following a
mere two-day break following the third Twenty20 International. Not just any
Test, either. India held the first women’s Test since 2014. England’s first
women’s Test match in India since 2005. the first for India following Jhulan
Goswami and Mithali Raj’s retirements.
Similar to any previous game, India trained for this
one with an emphasis on combining attack and defence.
India have maintained that they don’t want to be
overawed by the occasion of a Test match, a rare occurrence for them.
“Unlike T20s where every third or fourth ball is aerial shot, that is the
only thing we have to tell ourselves. If someone has aerial shots as their
first, that is their way. How Shafali [Verma] bats and I bat is different and
you can’t expect both of us to bat in a particular mould,” Smriti Mandhana
had said on Tuesday.
Harmanpreet Kaur alluded to it on the eve of the Test:
“The best thing [head coach Amol Muzumdar] said was, go with your best
batting style and don’t think about changing it because it is red-ball cricket.
If you are an aggressive batter, play aggressively. If you like to build your
innings, then do that. Back yourself and your batting style, because we hardly
have time to change things in batting.”
When England left for their afternoon training, the
sun was already beaming down, but they had a plan in place for how they were
going to prepare. Although the women’s Test matches are rare, England has
previously played 99 and will play their 100th against India in Navi Mumbai.
England will return home following this one-off Test,
but for India, who will play their first-ever back-to-back Test matches later
this month against Australia, it is just the beginning.