England vs India women, one-off Test: Sophia Dunkley became 1st black woman to play Test cricket for England while India had five debutants: Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia and Pooja Vastrakar.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sophia Dunkley is the 1st black woman to play Test cricket for England
• Shafali, Deepti, Sneh Rana, Taniya and Pooja made their Test debut for India
• England won the toss and opted to bat first against India in one-off Test

Young all-rounder Sophia Dunkley created history when she received her maiden Test cap ahead of the one-off Test against India as she became the first black woman to play Test cricket for England. Dunkley, who plays for South East Stars in the revamped regional structure, has represented England in 15 limited-overs matches at the international level since making her debut against Bangladesh in the 2018 World T20.

“Obviously playing Test cricket is a very rare occurrence in the women’s game so I think it’s exciting that people want to see women’s Test cricket,” Dunkley had told the PA news agency.

“It’s a really exciting direction. I know quite a lot of the girls have not played a lot of Test cricket, but to have the opportunity to play the historic game of cricket, it’s very, very exciting.”

IND W vs ENG W, One-off Test, Day 1 Live

“I’ve not played very much in the past, but it’s something that I’d love to play. Obviously, the men get to play Test cricket all the time and it’s such a renowned format of cricket in the men’s game.

Five debutants for India in the one-off Test

Notably, Sophia is the only debutant for England while India, playing their first Test since 2014, have five: Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia and Pooja Vastrakar.

Verma, 17, is currently the No. 1-ranked T20I batter and the youngest Indian woman to play T20I cricket, and the youngest Indian to make an international half-century. She made her India debut in September 2019. She was recently promoted from Category C to Category B in the India Women central contracts announced by the BCCI

Sneh Rana makes her India return after five years. With 18 wickets, Sneh was the leading wicket-taker for Mithali Raj-led Railways in the domestic 50-over tournament earlier this year..