India are set to play two women’s Tests in 2021. Ahead of the game against England at Bristol, Episode 1 of Holding the Line minicast explains what new fans to the sport can expect from this one-off Test. With a detour to 1986, and India’s first tour to England.
Transcript
One side complained about poor umpiring. The other about time wasting. Some fielders said the glare from vehicles parked near the boundary was too much. So play had to be stopped while those cars were moved. Strong words were exchanged. Apologies demanded. Governments got involved. And somewhere in the middle, a world record for batting in women’s Test cricket was set.
The first tour by the Indian women’s cricket team to England was nothing if not full of drama and controversy.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’m Karunya Keshav. And thanks for joining me on the Holding the Line minicast.
The Indian women’s cricket team are set to play two Test matches in 2021. And this is probably the first time many of us will watch these amazing women play cricket in whites.
Over five episodes of this minicast (at least I think it’s five, we’ll figure it out as we go along) I’ll tackle five big questions about women’s Test matches and try to explain why this is such a big deal. I’ll tell you stories from Indian cricket’s past, and talk about just what these Tests means for the future.
It’s the lead up to India’s Test against England women in Bristol, and in episode 1, I’m going to try to answer the question: What should people watching this Test expect?
It’s a totally different scenario when you play red ball cricket
Harmanpreet Kaur
That was Harmanpreet Kaur, India vice-captain. She’ll be playing her third Test match. The first came seven years ago in 2014, also in England.
She’s talking about batting, but it’s kind of the same for the fans of the game too. It’s a totally different scenario when you watch women’s Test cricket. We may have watched loads of men’s Tests, and we may even have followed plenty of women’s cricket. But there are so few women’s Tests, that even for the most experienced Test cricket watchers, a few little things are going to stand out in a few little ways.
For starters, women’s Tests take place over four days, not five. Which means a follow on can be enforced if a team is 150 runs short, not 200.
It also means teams have to bowl 100 overs a day, not 90 like in men’s Tests. So, they get through their overs quicker. The latest playing conditions say they have to go at 17 overs an hour. The men who will be playing the World Test Championship final around the same time, will be looking to bowl 15 overs an hour.
So, expect to watch a match that goes along a little bit faster than you’re maybe used to.
But that doesn’t mean the scoring itself will be faster. In fact, it’s probably not going to be.
I know it’s a game of patience, and however long I can we need to spend time at the crease.
Harmanpreet Kaur
Here are some numbers. Since 2013, the average for a top-order batter in the women’s game is around 30. And they score at a strike-rate of just 39.62. For reference, the average in the men’s game is 36 and they score at a rate of 59.57.
This isn’t to compare the skills of men and women and show one is better than the other. Or to say that you should expect boring cricket. Far from it. There’ll be some of the best skill and technique on show, in both batting and bowling. I mean, Jhulan Goswami will be playing. But do remember these numbers when you set your expectations of performances and criticise a performance as good or below average.
I’ll explain this further, but before that I want to take a detour to 1986, and that story I began with. When India women toured England for the first time, and a Test unfolded so slowly, that it was compared to watching paint dry.
And I want to introduce you to Sandhya Agarwal.
My favourite photo of Sandhya Agarwal is from this same England tour. If it were on Instagram, you’d say this photo has a sepia filter, and the colours aren’t terribly bright. But you see this small-ish woman, with her bindi and two plaits, padded up and ready to bat. She’s wearing a floppy hat and T-shirt with a photo of Sunil Gavaskar. Remember, this was the 80s. She’s standing hand on hip, bat in hand, and she looks so serene, it’s such cool look, I love it.
That first tour of England was Sandhya’s tour. Sandhya, who’s from Madhya Pradesh, made 359 runs from three Tests back then, at an average of 71.8. She had two 100s, including a top score of 190 in the third Test, the highest in women’s cricket back then. You know how long she took to get there? 526 balls, and all of nine hours and 23 minutes at the crease.
The team coach still says it’s the best innings he saw in his life. Ask her teammates, and they’ll tell you, she was an incredible example of technique and concentration.
In the previous Test, Sandhya’s 132 came in 328 balls. That’s a strike rate of around 40.
But these knocks got Sandhya, and the Indian team, a reputation for playing slow, dull cricket, and wasting time. One English author called the team’s batting “the dullest on record”.
Now, the events of the first Test didn’t help this reputation for the Indians. What happened, was this. In that Test, India had set England a target of 254. It was close, England in fact were 229 for 5 when play ended. But those last few hours of the Test got really controversial. The English accused the Indians of wasting time, while the Indians were angry at what they saw as biased umpiring. Some players told me how close-in catches were not being given.
You know how I said bowlers need to get through 17 overs an hour these days? Apparently, in that match, the Indians, who were frustrated at the umpiring, managed just around 7 an hour.
They complained about the ground size. They said the sun reflected off the cars parked around the ground, and they wanted the vehicles moved. So much so that the spectators were asked to try and form a human wall to stop this glare!
The match was drawn, but after that, came allegations of racism. The chairperson of the host association sort of scolded the Indians at the presentation ceremony. And then went to the dressing room and told them that they would be ostracised from international cricket if they kept that behaviour up. Many of the Indian players were driven to tears. The host association says in its report that there was, and I quote, “complete ignorance of the Spirit of the game” from the visiting side.
But the Indians didn’t take kindly to this. Leading the side was Diana Edulji. You might know her as the lady who was always in the news a few years ago, when she was part of the team running things at the BCCI. So you probably know how she wasn’t going to take things lying down.
India demanded an apology from the chairperson. They felt the tricolour was being insulted. And they threatened to take the next flight back unless they got an apology. We came to play cricket the hard way, not make friends, Diana said. She still considers this whole incident an example of racism.
Things go so bad, the government had to step in to cool things down. Finally, a written apology came and the tour continued. But of course, in the next two Tests, Sandhya continued to frustrate everyone with her determined batting.
Both teams have come a long way since then. Relations are much better, and there’s so much respect.
So why bring up this story of 1986? Apart from the fact that it’s fascinating af, I’m hoping to put Test batting in context.
Ironically, back in 1986, the English players’ hundreds too came just as slowly. And mostly because of a pitch that was described as “dreadfully boring”.
And that’s something to remember in 2021 too. This Test match in Bristol between England and India is being played on a used pitch. And English captain Heather Knight is not happy.
“It isn’t ideal.”
Heather Knight
Nobody is quite sure what a used pitch means. But it might be that batting gets difficult. And there’s not much in there for the pace bowlers.
The swing you usually expect in England? You might have to reset those expectations too.
“We don’t play with the Dukes ball. I would love to have a new Dukes ball in my hand! I don’t think Dukes makes a women’s red ball.”
Kate Cross
That’s England’s Kate Cross. Pointing to another element of difference. Women don’t really play with the Dukes red ball in Tests in England.
Of course, nobody really knows if that used pitch will in fact be sluggish. And maybe Shafali Verma will come out swinging and make a joke out of those strike rate numbers I just gave you.
The truth is, there’s so much uncertainty around this Test match. We don’t know what to expect. Even the players don’t. Because these teams aren’t used to playing Test cricket. They play 50-over and 20-over cricket. They don’t even play this format in domestic cricket. There is no such thing as first-class games in any country right now. Many of these women are going to be playing red-ball cricket in a match situation for the very first time. And honestly, that just blows my mind.
So for now, when I sit in front of my screen on day 1 of the Test, my expectation is simple: I expect to see 22 players giving it their absolute best in going for a win, whatever the pitch, whatever their experience. And I’ll cherish a chance to watch a form of cricket that we so rarely get to see.
Thank you for listening. On the next episode, I’ll look at a new element of women’s Test cricket.
0 Comments