Ladies Special

India women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur during a practice session at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai yesterday. Pic/PTI

It will be a landmark moment for Heather Knight's England team when they walk out to be part of the one-off women's Test against Harmanpreet Kaur-led India at the DY Patil Stadium here today. Today's four-day game against India marks England's 100th Test and their 15th against India, who are being led for the first time in Test cricket by Harmanpreet Kaur. The dynamic batter made her longer format debut way back in 2014.

Kaur, who has represented the country in three Tests, admitted that it will be a real test for the batters to counter the red-ball. However, she wants her players to keep it simple. "My advice is to keep a positive mindset and execute. Only the ball's colour has changed and we are playing in whites. We all have an emotional attachment to whites and are excited to play the Test. We are ready for this opportunity; just want to go there and enjoy," Kaur told mid-day when asked about the red-ball challenge during the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

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Heather Knight

India will be out to prove that they can provide a stiff challenge to the visitors who recently won the three-match T20I series 1-2 at the Wankhede Stadium. "It will be better for us if we play with a positive mindset. As a batter, it will be challenging because there is more movement in red-ball cricket. We were playing on flat wickets in T20 cricket for a long time, but here it is a test of the batters' patience.

We don't need to think about whether it's a Test, play defensively or how to change batting. At the end of the day, we need to see the ball and react accordingly," Kaur remarked. Meanwhile, Mumbai girl Jemimah Rodrigues, 23, who has represented the country in 24 ODIs and 89 T20Is, is likely to make her Test debut.

Knight, 32, who will figure in her 12th Test, said playing a Test in India is on the bucket list of every cricketer. However, she admitted it's going to be a tough challenge. "[We are] desperate to win a Test match. It feels like a long time since we have done that as an England side. We have had a lot of draws and are working towards how we want to play. If we do that, hopefully we will come up with a very nice result," Knight remarked.