First the Good News
A test match will take place.
The weather is set fine, for one day at least.
DRS will be in operation.
Then the other news
Pitchgate
News that the 4-day game will be played out on a pitch used for a previous T20 match caused uproar.
The ECB eventually put out a statement apologising and explaining. The fixture came along too late to be fitted into the original structure for the season. For coronaviral reasons choices were limited as a hotel had to be on site or close by, able to accommodate the two squads on two separate floors and with easy access to training facilities. That left only Bristol, but the groundsman had no virgin strip left over. It won’t happen again, they say.
One trail leads back to a big boss at the BCCI who allegedly included a test match in the tour schedule without informing the ECB first. If you were offered a first test match in seven years, how would you react?
So two possible outcomes emerge: either the pitch will wear inordinately, giving undue help to spinners or seamers; or it will become increasingly slow and low. The latter has happened too often in past tests (see the stats below).
In the Daily Telegraph Isabelle Westbury has already called out the two team selections, long before the official announcements are due:
England:
1. Heather Knight (captain)
2. Lauren Winfield-Hill
3. Tammy Beaumont
4. Amy Jones (w-k)
5. Natalie Sciver
6. Georgia Elwiss
7. Katherine Brunt
8. Sophie Ecclestone
9. Mady Villiers
10. Anya Shrubsole
11. Kate Cross
India
1. Jemimah Rodrigues
2. Smriti Mandhana
3. Punam Raut
4. Mithali Raj (captain)
5. Harmanpreet Kaur
6. Deepti Sharma
7. Taniya Bhatia (w-k)
8. Jhulan Goswami
9. Shikha Pandey
10. Arundhati Reddy
11. Poonam Yadav
Assuming Westbury has a direct line, this England XI is not the one that I would have selected, but then what do I know?
It’s still early days in Lisa Keightley’s reign, but already we can see a repeat of her preference for experience over youthful talent. At No 6 she opts for Georgia Elwiss as an all-rounder providing a fifth seam-up bowler. Her current form is hardly an endorsement; in the RHF Trophy she averages 18 with the bat and 53 with the ball (2 wickets). Presumably she is preferred to Sophia Dunkley, the one young batter to force her way into the squad. It means Keightley does not think a squadron of four quicker bowlers and two spinners sufficient to ensure victory.
Mady Villiers has the chance to prove she is a better bet than Sarah Glenn; that will not be easy. And Women’s CricZone’s preview emphasised the problems Tash Farrant could pose with her left-arm over swing. Special pleading as that may be from India to ensure another feared player is excluded, it means no fewer than five bowlers running down the same track at pace.
All the batters are right-handed; on the bowling front only Sophie Ecclestone offers variety (and high quality) with her left-arm spin.
Some Stats
England’s test record: played 95; won 20; lost 14; drawn 61 – yawn, yawn?
India: played 36; won 5; lost 6; drawn 25 – ditto?
