England and India to play first women’s Test at Lord’s

LONDON: Lord’s is set to stage its first women’s Test match when England take on India in a four-day game starting on Friday, marking a milestone 142 years after the ground hosted its first men’s Test.

The fixture comes a little over 50 years after the first women’s match of any format at the London venue, when England defeated Australia by eight wickets in a One-day International on August 4, 1976. That match was led by England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint, later recognised as one of the women’s game’s pioneering figures. Heyhoe Flint, who died in 2017, now has a gate at Lord’s named after her.

In 1976, however, the environment around the game was very different. Women players still wore skirts, and the Marylebone Cricket Club, which owns Lord’s, was still many years away from allowing women to become members. At that time, women walking through the pavilion’s Long Room before taking the field was still far from reality.

India coach Amol Muzumdar said the occasion carried major significance for his side.

“It just boggles my mind that it is just the first (women’s) Test match here at Lord’s,”

He added:

“It is a great occasion and we are looking forward to it.”

Historic occasion for both teams

The match will be England’s second women’s fixture at Lord’s in less than a week after Sunday’s loss to Australia in the women’s T20 World Cup final, a game played before a full house. That contrast underlines how far the women’s game has moved on from its amateur era, with this Test featuring two professional sides.

England coach Charlotte Edwards said the players had long been aware of the match on the schedule and had prepared for the format during the T20 World Cup.

“We’ve always known this has been on the calendar,”

Edwards said. She added:

“A lot of our players have been doing Test match prep throughout the T20s so we’re really looking forward to it.”

Edwards, who captained England to victory in the 2009 Women’s T20 World Cup final at Lord’s, described the fixture as important for both sides.

“It’s a historic Test match for us as a group and for the Indian team, and we can’t wait to play in front of a lot of people again over the next four days.”

Nine members of England’s World Cup squad have been named in the Test side, including captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is hoping to play despite an ongoing calf problem.

Beaumont to sign off at Lord’s

The game will also serve as Tammy Beaumont’s final international appearance. Beaumont has played 260 matches for England since making her debut 17 years ago. In 2023, against Australia at Trent Bridge, she became the first England woman to score a double century in a Test, making 208.

Beaumont, 35, said she would continue in domestic cricket, but described the Lord’s Test as a fitting way to end her international career.

“When I fell in love with playing cricket as a young girl, I barely knew that playing cricket for England was an option,”

she said. Beaumont added:

“Our first ever women’s Test at Lord’s feels like the perfect occasion to sign off on a career that I could never have dreamt would be as special as it has been.”

England spinner Tilly Corteen-Colman, 18, also reflected on the significance of the event, recalling conversations about an earlier era when women were not allowed into the Long Room.

“I remember speaking to Lottie (Edwards) about when she used to play here and they weren’t allowed in the Long Room,”

she said. Corteen-Colman added:

“The first women’s Test at Lord’s is history in the making, so to be involved would be incredible. It would mean the absolute world.”

The sense of how much has changed was also captured by former England player Megan Lear, who had compared the 1976 experience to the moon landing in comments to the Guardian, saying: “On that day in 1976, to walk on to the hallowed turf at Lord’s, it was like one small step for us women cricketers, but one giant leap towards the future of women’s cricket.”