Harmanpreet Kaur has been ruled out of India's pink-ball Test against Australia, starting Thursday.
On the eve of the game, India captain Mithali Raj confirmed that Harmanpreet, who suffered a thumb injury during training, has not recovered yet. She had missed out on the limited overs series, which concluded earlier this week.
India's women's cricket team will be playing its first-ever pink-ball Test and Mithali confirmed that the team had no pink-ball sessions in the Bengaluru camp as the focus was on 50-over cricket.
"We were preparing for the One-day series in the Bengaluru camp. It was more to do with the white ball. Of course, we tried playing a few games under the lights to get used to the day-night Test. The preparation was more for the one-day series in the camp," Mithali said.
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The touring team had its first session with the pink ball only on Tuesday, just a couple of days before the match. "For everybody, it was a little bit of a different experience because they are not used to seeing a pink ball around. It does quite a bit and that's pretty much the first impression of playing with the pink ball," the captain said.
"If we would have got a little more time between the last ODI and the Test, it would have been helpful. But again, I understand that it was shorter because of COVID protocols..."The Test match is going to be a challenging affair for the Indian team for more reasons than one - if playing under lights could be a big task, this will also be for the first time that the team will play on drop-in wickets.
"There is a fair amount of grass and it is a drop-in wicket, so it is also the first time we will be playing in a drop-in wicket. Looking at the wicket, everybody would want to go in with a lot of seamers in the side," Mithali said, indicating that the playing eleven will be decided hours before the fixture.
However, the captain is happy with the pace attack. "We are quite pleased with the way three fast bowlers have performed in the ODI series. Jhulan being more experienced, she is helping Meghna (Singh) and Pooja Vastrakar. We do have some very good quality seamers in Meghna and Pooja. We also have Shikha Pandey, it's a good pace department that we have.
"This will be the second Test in a year for the Indian team and Mithali hopes that going forward, every bilateral series will have at least a standalone Test.
"The most significant thing is, this year we had two Test matches - in England and Australia. If it becomes a regular feature in a bilateral series, playing three formats will definitely help the players. That's the feedback I get from most of the players, even the ones who are part of various leagues, they love the longer format. If it becomes a regular thing, it will be great for women's cricket," she said.
Asked whether the Pink-ball Test should be a regular affair in every series, Mithali said: "It depends on the Board. Test format should be regular - whether you play red ball or pink ball - if the format is part of the itinerary, it really helps."
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