India women to play their first-ever day-night test match in Australia in 2021

The Indian women’s cricket team is all set to compete in its first-ever day-night test match, several sources from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have revealed. Most notably, BCCI secretary Jay Shah posted a tweet on Thursday, confirming that the Indian and Australian women teams will compete in a pink-ball test match sometime later this year. 

Taking forward our commitment towards women's cricket, I am extremely pleased to announce that Team India @BCCIwomen will play in their first-ever pink ball day-night Test later this year in Australia.

— Jay Shah (@JayShah) May 20, 2021

“…extremely pleased to announce that Team India (women) will play in their first-ever pink ball day-night test later this year in Australia”, Shah’s tweet read.

The aforementioned development confirms a claim made by an anonymous BCCI source earlier this week that suggested the Indian Cricket Board’s desire to elevate the quality of women’s cricket. “England and Australia are the two teams that still play (women’s) Tests. Going forward, you will see a Test slotted in when they visit India or when India tour the two countries,” the official had said.

India women last played a test match in November 2014

The proposed Australia day-night test takes the India women team’s team test match tally this year from one match to two; a significant improvement over the seven-year period from 2014-2020 which didn’t see the team compete in any red-ball international game whatsoever. The women team’s last official test-match assignment dates back to November 2014, against South Africa at the Gangotri Glades Cricket Ground in Mysore. India had won that particular game by an innings and 34 runs.

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The women-in-blue are scheduled to compete in a one-off test match against England women at the Bristol Cricket Ground from 16-20 June 2021. Mithali Raj, the team’s incumbent test captain, is expected to resume her leadership role, with Harmanpreet Kaur most likely to serve as her deputy. It will be interesting to see if young, upcoming talents like Shefali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Priya Punia will be able to make their red-ball debut in England.