The Indian women’s team, led by Mithali Raj, will be set to play their first pink ball, Day and Night Test, when they lock horns with Meg Lanning’s Australia on Thursday at the Carrara Oval. The hosts won the toss and elected to bowl.

India come to the series after putting up a fighting performance in the one-day games.  With the third ODI held on Sunday and the following day being a rest day, the Mithali Raj-led squad has got only two practice sessions in the lead up to the landmark Test. The visitors lost 1-2 in the shorter format series.

Also read: Yuzvendra Chahal to Shikhar Dhawan: Players who can still make it to India’s T20 World Cup squad

However, the tour is a multi-format series and stands at 4-2 at the moment. 

Talking about the lack of preparations, India skipper on Wednesday said, “The first training session that we had with the pink ball was yesterday. Yes, for everybody it was a little bit of a different experience because we are not so used to seeing a pink ball around. It does move quite a bit. That’s pretty much the first impression of playing with a pink ball.”

“We were preparing for the one-day series back home in the Bangalore camp, so it was more to do with the white ball,” Raj added.

“Of course, we tried to play a few games under the lights to get used to the day-night Test and the one-off [day-night] game in the one-day series. The preparation was more of the one-day format in the camp. Yeah, if we could have got a little more time between the last one-day [match] and the Test, it would have been quite helpful. But, again, I understand it was shortened because of COVID-19 protocols.”

  Also read: IPL 2021: Sunrisers Hyderabad look to play party-poopers vs high-flying Chennai Super Kings

Australia, who played their lone day-night Test in November 2017, also go into the game with limited practice but their potent pace attack will be looking forward to wreaking havoc at the greenish pitch here.

India did well in their first Test outing in seven years, drawing against England in June, but the players and experts believe the skiddy pink-ball will pose a much tougher challenge for the visitors.

India and Australia last played a Test in 2006 with only Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami featuring in that game among the current players on both sides.

Harmanpreet Kaur remains unavailable though she did have a hit in the nets on the eve of the game.

“Harman had injured her thumb while fielding that is why she is out. it has still not healed properly,” Mithali said on the eve of the match.

Australia, on the other hand, have been dealt a blow ahead of the game with vice-captain Rachael Haynes ruled out due to a hamstring injury.

Australia will be aiming for a perfect game after India ended their 26-match winning streak in the third ODI.

With the pink-ball, their relatively inexperienced pace attack is more than capable of troubling the Indian batters.

Teams:

India Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Mithali Raj(c), Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia(w), Pooja Vastrakar, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Australia Women (Playing XI): Alyssa Healy(w), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning(c), Ellyse Perry, Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Darcie Brown, Stella Campbell