Harmanpreet Kaur wants to see more Test matches being held in women’s cricket and, thus, the Indian skipper has called for additional international and domestic red-ball fixtures in the upcoming Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle.
In the current FTP cycle that goes on from 2022-25, the Indian women’s team will play the least number of Test matches among the four sides competing in the longest format.
“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 on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
The Indian women’s team is slated to play only a couple of Test matches in the 2023-24 season against England and Australia. The team played its last Test in Australia two years ago.
On the other hand, England will play the most number of Tests (five) followed by Australia (four) and South Africa (three).
“As a player, I definitely want more Tests because as a growing kid, we saw more Tests on TV than T20s. Nowadays, it’s a lot of fun playing T20s but Test cricket is something every cricketer wants to play,” Harmanpreet added.
According to the Indian captain, the domestic scene has improved in the country by leaps and bounds and the women cricketers need to play more multi-day matches.
“Trust me, it has improved a lot. 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.”
Having made her India debut in 2009, Harmanpreet Kaur has played only three Tests so far while she has represented the country in 127 ODIs and 154 T20Is.
“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 Tests hopefully we’ll get two-day matches back. The more cricket we get, the more improvement we’ll see in women’s cricket. Hope to see some more talent in the Indian side,” Kaur said.
(With PTI Inputs)
