India-W vs Australia-W - Only Test – First encounter in 15 years; Harmanpreet ruled out of Injury
Indian Women set to play only pink-ball test against Australia Women in Australia.
The last few years in women’s cricket, particularly the timespan after the 2017 ODI World Cup, has seen a new dawn as there is a tremendous increase in viewership and fan following for women’s cricket across the globe.
Cricket fans started to follow women’s cricket at the international and franchise levels mainly in the limited over formats, whereas Tests are still a rare sight for the ardent followers of the game.
Team News
Harmanpreet Kaur has been ruled out of the Carrara Oval Test as she has not yet recovered from a thumb injury, India captain Mithali Raj confirmed on the eve of the Only Test. Kaur had also missed out participating in the three-match ODI series preceding the Carrara Oval Test due to the same reason
Mithali Raj said on the eve of the Test, "Playing Tests at home would also be quite significant because we would have the advantage and the girls would also get the experience of playing a Test at home," Raj said. "Most of the girls in the current squad have toured abroad, been part of the 2014 Test in England and the last Test in England, so I think most of them have played Test matches abroad, so it would be nice to have a Test even at home."
India Women Starting XI - Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Mithali Raj (C), Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Shikha Pandey
Bench: Ekta Bisht, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh