100 years in the making – previewing the first-ever women's Test match at Lord's

Right, Raf, I think the first thing we need to do is acknowledge the ludicrousness of the scheduling-

[laughs]

... of this test match.

The T20 World Cup finished on Sunday evening and today, which at time of recording is about midday on Wednesday, England are back at Lord's netting and training for a test match, their first test match at home for three years.

India toured here last summer as well, but it wasn't possible to schedule a test match at Lord's because there was the World Test Championship final there and also the men's test series against India.

We've spoken a lot on this podcast over the last couple of weeks about women's international tournaments being pushed down the scheduling list.

While it's great that there is a women's test match at Lord's now, is this just another example of women's international cricket being pushed down the scheduling priority list?

Probably, yeah, if we're realistic.

Um, I think, yeah, the, the timing is bizarre.

Very much less than ideal.

I'm a bit torn because I think that one of the reasons it's taken so long to get a women's test at Lord's has absolutely been because of the kind of huge overloading of the, um, the sort of schedule at Lord's that the MCC has to contend with.

Um, and I would much rather that we have a women's test at Lord's, um, and have kind of all of the historic importance of that, um, and the, the kind of spectacle of that because just having a test, a women's test match at Lord's is a really exciting occasion, and I would rather that we don't let the, the perfect be the enemy of the good.

If it had to be this week, um, or never, then let's do it.

Um, but on the other hand, um, you know, as always in women's cricket, we're balancing, um, being grateful, uh, for what we receive versus also looking at it and just being a bit baffled that it did have to be, um, what? Five days after the World Cup final.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm kind of losing a little bit of sympathy with Lord's about, you know, like the whole men's test this year with the pitch being rated unsatisfactory and the arguments about the overuse of the square.

You just need to start saying no to some things surely and prioritizing some things.

And if you've committed to having a women's test match at Lord's, which the ICC, ICEC report flagged as, what was it? It said, uh, an appalling oversight or something like that, that there hadn't been a women's test at Lord's.

If that is a priority, you need to say no to some other stuff as well to make sure that four days after a T20 World Cup final we are not then playing a test match.

And all of the normal caveats that apply to women's test cricket still apply within all that.

So there's been very little opportunity for players to practice, especially those involved in the T20 World Cup, for players to actually get into a red ball kind of groove, if there ever is a w- red ball groove in women's cricket.

Um, like in the post-match press conference for the T20 World Cup final Nat Sciver-Brunt was asked about how she's gonna prepare for the test match at Lord's.

And even from like her body point of view, her calf, I guess, still remains a delicate issue.

And while she said that she wants to play the test and she will be p- playing the test, it feels unideal that there's so little recovery time in between such a major emotional tournament and final, um, and such a big occasion of the first women's test at Lord's.

I guess the silver lining for India of getting knocked out before-