IND vs ENG, Women’s Test: India shines underneath new alliance, issues aplenty for England

The satisfying factor about puzzles after the time it takes to search out the fitting items that go collectively is that remaining step of then clicking all of them into place. India’s 347-run mauling of England within the one-off Test on the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai would have had that high quality of contentment for the spectator – a efficiency that noticed all the required parts come collectively and make that good ‘click.’

Test cricket is an elite privilege in ladies’s cricket, restricted to the large three – Australia, England and India. Old rivals England and Australia too simply get a Test each odd yr due to the Ashes. The subcontinent final noticed a Test in 2014, when India beat South Africa by an innings and 34 runs. This week, the nine-year drought was quenched with an Indian win once more and the largest one when it comes to runs within the ladies’s sport. 

New alliances

The larger victory for the facet is the making of a brand new captain-coach partnership. Veteran home batter Amol Muzumdar took over as head coach of the ladies’s crew, beginning with the England T20I collection. While India misplaced the collection 1-2, Muzumdar was unfazed and turned his focus to the Tests. 

The format is likely to be inconsequential within the present worldwide situation, with no championship factors to say or bigger image to work in the direction of, however it gave him time with the crew and a possibility to hunt within the area he has owned on the home stage – purple ball cricket. 

Indian ladies’s crew celebrates with the trophy after beating England within the one-off Test on the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI/THE HINDU

“The coach’s experience came in handy during this Test,” Harmanpreet Kaur mentioned after the win. “I did not have any red ball captaincy experience so I trusted him with key decisions like bringing Shubha Satheesh in to bat one down, or the bowling strategies. Even today, the first 40 minutes were key and he believed we should capitalise on the conditions in the morning and we did the same,” she defined. 

Harmanpreet has all the time been an aggressive captain, unafraid to make use of quirky discipline settings and glad to assault until the final ball. She wanted a tactician who might complement this aggression and provides it a zing of depth. Muzumdar’s eager tuning to the longest format of the sport helped him embellish a crew that had the starvation with the fitting personnel.

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“Playing Shubha was the coach’s call,” Harmanpreet revealed. “He saw how she batted at the NCA (during India’s practice camp for the England series), how she was taking control and taking the game ahead. He believed sending her one down would give us a good start. She did it the way we expected her to as well,” she added. 

Muzumdar’s pre-match focus areas had been health and fielding. The Indian crew barely regarded hassled because it learnt on the go and the shut fields, attacking strains and frugality in conceding runs ticked all of the fundamentals wanted for a easy but devastating Test match triumph.  

Off spinners thrived on a turning wicket on the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai with Deepti Sharma ending on high with 9 wickets in complete within the fixture.

Spinning uncontrolled

England’s drained presence over the two-and-a-half days of Test cricket was in stark distinction to India’s zeal and curiosity. The customer regarded exhausted bodily and mentally because it regarded out of concepts even earlier than the primary ball was bowled. 

“We know Test cricket is quite difficult in that you might be out in the field and things can change very quickly. It is all about the mindset and having the ability to switch the mind on – with the bat or the ball or on the field – and be ready for the ball. There’s a few tired bodies but tired minds as well,” vice captain Natalie Sciver-Brunt advised the media after day two. At that stage, England confronted the requirement of batting no less than for a whole day to have an opportunity to avoid wasting this Test, the facet’s milestone a centesimal within the ladies’s sport. A little bit underneath three hours is all they might muster.

ALSO READ | Sciver-Brunt: Deepti’s various lengths made issues laborious for batters

Skipper Heather Knight alluded to hostile circumstances courtesy Navi Mumbai’s quintessential warmth and humidity and ‘extreme spin’.

“I think the wicket probably deteriorated a bit faster than we expected. We got a few knicks that didn’t carry which can be quite soul destroying for the fast bowlers, when your best ball doesn’t carry to the slip. We then identified that the wobble ball was more effective and we tried to get as much out of that as we can. The pitch deteriorated but our main learning, especially for the seamers, was to consistently execute. Pooja (Vastrakar) was an example of that. She was tricky with her wobble ball on a good length and didn’t give us too many opportunities to score,” Knight mentioned, through the postmortem of a moderately underwhelming exhibiting from the facet. 

“This is the first time we’ve bowled in a Test match in these conditions. Maybe if we had a two or three match series, we’d be able to use these lessons and get better. I guess we’re pretty philosophical on what’s happened around this Test match,” she added. 

Choices and penalties

While Knight centered on execution points on the sphere, one can argue their issues stemmed from the drafting board. In a area recognized for its turners, England’s bowling arsenal put up a four-pronged seam frontline in Kate Cross, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell and Nat Sciver-Brunt. The entirety of spin duties fell on Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone, who dislocated her shoulder and had surgical procedure three months in the past. Faith remained in an underperforming Sophia Dunkley, who had a Test to neglect and whose leg spin was not given an choice to function within the English resistance. One wonders if allrounder Alice Capsey, along with her off spin would have been the higher selection. Knight, a nifty offie herself, didn’t bowl.

Sophie Ecclestone of England throughout day two of the primary take a look at match between India Women and England Women held on the D Y Patil stadium, Navi Mumbai on the fifteenth December 2023.
| Photo Credit:
Sportzpics for BCCI

“It was a hard selection to make to have the extra bowler and lose the batter at 6 and 7. There was a chance that we would have won the toss and then that bowler would have weighed in. In the first innings, I was glad to have that extra bowler. We didn’t get as much bounce and carry as we thought we’d get. It was a quick pitch. Probably didn’t get as much as we’d thought we’d get after batting at the edge of the square where there was more pace and bounce. Hindsight is one thing, but I don’t regret that call,” Knight mentioned. 

Subcontinental nightmare

England’s helplessness doesn’t bode effectively for the facet given two ICC occasions developing within the area – the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2024 and the ODI World Cup in India in 2025. Poor footwork, lack of ability to gauge and put together for variations in flip ought to ship the alarm clocks ringing again residence. What additionally confounds is that that is an recognized weak point that’s solely getting worse. 

England was bowled out in each innings at Navi Mumbai with 13 out of 20 wickets falling to spin. Similar numbers emerged from Sri Lanka’s tour of England and from the Women’s Ashes with Ashleigh Gardner proving to be a thorn within the flesh for the English facet.

England skipper Heather Knight in motion on Day 2.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI/THE HINDU

“I think it’s a bit of a theme for us, we want to get better. We have a big tournament in Bangladesh and we haven’t been there in forever. Spin does tend to dominate in women’s cricket in general so if we can improve that, it will give us an advantage. These conditions were actually quite extreme and we’ve not seen this kind of spin and dryness in a pitch before. In the main formats we play, we don’t get as much as this,” Knight urged. 

“Previously, our points in opposition to spin have been in regards to the ball not spinning and extra in regards to the outdoors edge and the like. These circumstances are excessive and I’d be shocked if we face something like this in something apart from a Test in India, she added.