England vs India: Nat Sciver-Brunt’s aspect set for historic first Lord’s Check after heartbreaking T20 World Cup remaining loss

England suffered a heartbreaking seven-wicket defeat to Australia within the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup remaining at Lord’s, however they’ve the prospect to write down new headlines on the ‘Dwelling of Cricket’ lower than every week later.

Feminine spectators had been barred from the Marylebone Cricket Membership (MCC) and the pavilion at Lord’s till March 1999 – now, just below 30 years later, Nat Sciver-Brunt is ready to stroll down these well-known steps and lead her aspect out for the primary ever girls’s Check match at cricket’s most iconic venue in opposition to India.

So – who’s enjoying? What are England’s possibilities? And – extra importantly – why has it taken this lengthy? We reply all of your questions forward of the weekend’s historic Check match…

Why is that this Check historic?

The Check comes precisely 50 years after Rachael Heyhoe Flint led her aspect out for the primary England girls’s match at Lord’s and represents important progress within the prioritisation of the ladies’s sport.

For the reason that inaugural girls’s Ashes in 1934, England have performed 55 Exams at 19 venues throughout the nation – together with the Kia Oval on quite a few events – however by no means at Lord’s.

In June 2023, the Impartial Fee for Equality in Cricket issued a report lambasting the “truly appalling” lack of Girls’s Check matches at Lord’s – three years later, that report seems to have led to a change in angle from the MCC, as England’s girls will take centre stage in north west London 142 years after the boys’s first Check match.

“It’s a historic Test match for us as a group and for the Indian team,” England coach Charlotte Edwards emphasised.

“We can’t wait to play in front of a lot of people over the four days.”

What’s England’s file in opposition to India in Exams?

For the final time that England beat India in a Check match, you must go to again 1995, when their solely ever win in 15 tries got here in a thriller in Jamshedpur that England gained by simply two runs.

They’ve recorded three losses and 11 attracts of their different contests, most lately being on the receiving finish of a heavy defeat in India in December 2023, dropping by 347 runs after getting skittled for 136 and 131 of their respective innings.

England final performed India on house soil in 2021, recording a draw after a heroic 80 not out helped India star Sneh Rana maintain on for a draw of their second innings after her aspect posted 231 and needed to follow-on of their first. The vacationers, although, haven’t misplaced in 9 Exams on British soil, recording two wins and 7 attracts.

Who’s enjoying?

Regardless of England’s spectacular T20 World Cup marketing campaign, Charlotte Edwards has rung the modifications for her aspect’s first longer format sport of the summer season.

Tammy Beaumont – who’s inside England’s high 20 all-time Check run scorers with 612 – returns to the aspect after lacking out on the World Cup squad, however there isn’t any place within the aspect for white-ball vice-captain Charlie Dean.

It’s understood Dean’s workload is being managed following a again damage throughout the winter with Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson additionally being rested as all three get well from a taxing T20 World Cup marketing campaign.

There are a bunch of gamers boasting an enormous vary of expertise behind Sciver-Brunt – from Somerset’s Heather Knight trying to play in her fifteenth Check, to Surrey duo Alice Capsey and Tilly Corteen-Coleman and Durham’s Mady Villiers hoping to make their Check debuts.

How do I watch?

Watch the first-ever girls’s Check at Lord’s, between England and India, stay on Sky Sports activities Cricket from 10am on Friday (11am first ball), with protection persevering with every single day on the identical channel till Monday July 13. Stream cricket and extra high sport contract free with NOW.