Indian women’s cricket team captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, has expressed her desire to play more Test matches in the future. Kaur, who has played only three Tests in her 14-year international career, believes that the longest format of the game is essential for the development of women’s cricket.
Kaur made her Test debut in 2014 against England, and has since played two more Tests, both against the same opposition. The most recent one was in June in 2021, when India drew with England in Bristol. Kaur scored 4 and 8 in that match.
In an interview on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Kaur said that she enjoyed playing Test cricket and wanted to play more of it. She said that Test cricket challenges the skills and temperament of the players, and also helps them improve their game in the shorter formats.
“Nowadays it’s a lot of fun playing T20s but Test cricket is something every cricketer wants to play.
“This year we have two Tests – one against England and one against Australia – and I hope those games can make a huge impact on women’s cricket and hopefully in the future we will keep getting more Test matches. We have to bring back Test matches in women’s cricket because it’s very important for women’s cricket, Kaur said.
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Kaur also called for the resumption of long-duration domestic cricket in India, which has been discontinued since 2018. She said that playing four-day games at the domestic level would help the players prepare for international Test cricket.
“Trust me, [domestic cricket] has improved a lot,” she said. “Initially when I started playing, we hardly got domestic games but for the last couple of years, domestic level has improved a lot. We are getting more games and some domestic games are live also, people can watch on TV.
“It is improving day by day but in my early days we used to play two- and three-day games which we are really missing, and I’m sure after these two Test matches hopefully we’ll get two-day matches back. The more cricket we get, the more improvement we’ll see in women’s cricket, Kaur added.
Kaur’s views echo those of several other women cricketers who have advocated for more Test matches in the women’s game. Recently, England captain Heather Knight also said that she wanted to play more Tests, and suggested a points system for the women’s Ashes series that would give equal weightage to all three formats.
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