It was a picture-perfect offspinner's delivery that brought about a historic result for India - Sneh Rana tossing the red ball up, getting it to dip and spin past Sophie Ecclestone's inside edge to bowl her. India thumped England by 270 runs in the first-ever women's Test at Lord's. It was a mammoth achievement, but not a surprising result by any means.
Recent history favoured India. They had played a Test match in March, while England's last red-ball match was in January 2025. Moreover, the turnaround for England from the T20 World Cup final last Sunday at the same venue was very short. They had only two training sessions to switch formats and acclimatise to the red Dukes ball. On the other hand, the league-stage exit for a second successive T20 World Cup afforded India the time to get a few more training sessions under their belt. They practiced at the Wormsley Cricket Club ground for a few days before coming to St. John's Wood.
However, the driving force behind India's Test success has been the red-ball competition in their domestic circuit. India's women had a multi-day tournament as part of the domestic season until 2017-18, when it was discontinued. The paucity of women's Tests in the calendar meant that the BCCI replaced the red-ball competition with additional white-ball and age-group domestic tournaments. With India regularly playing Test cricket since returning to the format in June 2021, a feeder system was needed in the domestic circuit.
The Senior Women's Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy was added to the domestic calendar from 2023-24, which allowed players to hone their red-ball skills. That meant at least eight in India's XI at Lord's - and 12 from the entire squad including Pratika Rawal who was ruled out with injury - had played at least one red-ball game in the last couple of years. Both Rawal, and her replacement for the Test, Priya Punia, had scored a century in the inter-zonal red-ball tournament in March.
Yastika Bhatia, who became the first women's Test centurion at Lord's, may have played only four Test matches so far. But her red-ball experience is much greater, thanks to the 13 first-class matches she has played. Smriti Mandhana is India's second-leading run-scorer with 788 runs in nine Tests. She has 15 first-class appearances. All of it counted towards India keeping England in check for large parts of the Test match.
To give it more perspective, England's most-capped player in this Test, Heather Knight, also played 15 first-class matches. But all of those red-ball games came in high-pressure Tests. It is no surprise that Knight, who retired from international cricket after the Lord's game, called for some domestic red-ball matches for England's women.
"I'd love to see some domestic red-ball cricket," she said. "I think it will be like a massive development tool as well. When we play Test matches, we learn so much. And when we do have a proper build-up, you learn about the game. You learn about how to repeat, how to sustain concentration and the mental side of it for long periods of time. I don't know how it fits in or where it fits in. That's for the people above me to decide that.
"But yeah, I would certainly love a little bit of domestic red-ball cricket, even if it is like a couple of games that involve the best cricketers. It doesn't necessarily have to be a full part of the calendar, but I do think it would help us develop as better white-ball cricketers as well. I think it gives you the basis and the fundamental skills you need in white-ball cricket as well. Whether there's a world where that happens, I don't really know.
"India had a little bit more time to prepare, and I thought they played brilliantly. I thought they were outstanding. The way they repeated under pressure, the way they were able to read the game was very impressive. So credit to them.
"It's really hard for us as well. But when I was a kid, it was hammered into me to value your wicket, value wicket, value wicket. The girls coming in have grown up on T20, and I think even 50-over stuff. I think a lot of our younger cricketers coming through are a lot better at T20 than they are [at the] 50-over [format]. From a batting point of view, being able to build an innings, or shape a spell with the bowling side. I do think it is really hard."
India have among the most experienced red-ball players at present in women's cricket. None of the other nations have a full-fledged red-ball competition apart from India. Before her Test debut at Perth in March, Sayali Satghare had already played five first-class matches. Australia is the only other country that hosts a domestic red-ball game for women - a one-off fixture between CA Green and CA Gold that began in 2024.
Statistically, India haven't lost a women's Test in England. Their last defeat to England came in 1995 in Jamshedpur. In each of their last two Tests against England, India registered their biggest and second-biggest wins in the format. Given the dearth of women's Tests and the chasm in domestic red-ball infrastructure, the magnitude of India's achievement is not as striking as it ought to be.