Why India women’s cricket team has edge over England in one-off Test

The Indian women’s cricket team is currently playing England in a one-off Test at County Ground, Bristol. But what makes this an interesting tie that this young Indian women’s team is chasing history. Should they win this match, they will record a fourth consecutive Test victory and will break Australia’s record for most consecutive wins in Tests.

Going by the record, India has an edge over England. In a total of 13 Tests that they have played against each other, India has won two and lost just one. The remaining 10 ended in a draw. Interestingly, India has won twice in England – in 2006 Taunton and in 2014 Wormsley – and are undefeated in England in Test cricket. The last three victories came against England (2004, 2014) and South Africa (2014). How about that?

The only time India lost a Test to England was back in 1995 in Jamshedpur.

The current team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur has five debutants in their ranks; Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami are playing in a Test match after a gap of 7 years.

The five debutants are: Deepti Sharma Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana and Taniya Bhatia.

In their last one-off Test against England at Wormsley in 2014, the Indian team led by one of their greatest – Mithali Raj – trounced the home team by six wickets. That was a special victory because the team was inexperienced and was playing against an experienced English side.

That time the Indian time had 8 players who made their Test debut.

The 2014 one-off Test also saw Mithali and Smriti Mandhana score match-winning half-centuries; Jhulan took a total of 5 wickets.