The first-ever Lord’s Women’s Test got underway on Friday, and after 142 years of hosting men’s Ashes battles, cricket’s most storied ground finally opened its doors to the women’s game. India made sure the occasion had substance to match the symbolism.
Put in to bat by England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, India lost both openers cheaply — Shafali Verma for a duck off Lauren Filer and Yastika Bhatia bowled by a beauty from Lauren Bell — before Smriti Mandhana steadied the innings with a run-a-ball fifty that set the tone for the rest of the session.
Session Snapshot
- Toss: England won, chose to field
- Lunch score: India 122/3
- Top performer: Smriti Mandhana, 50* off 56 balls at the break
- Wickets: Filer 1, Bell 1 (first session); Issy Wong strikes after lunch, removing Mandhana just short of a hundred
Jemimah Rodrigues looked fluent in patches before dragging one onto her stumps for 35, but it was Mandhana’s innings that anchored the middle order. She brought up her fifty with a six down the ground off Sophie Ecclestone before eventually falling to a thin edge, caught behind by Amy Jones off Issy Wong.
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A Landmark Beyond the Scorecard
The fixture carries weight well beyond one afternoon’s cricket. Lord’s staged its first-ever women’s international — an ODI between England and Australia — back in 1976 under Rachael Heyhoe-Flint’s captaincy. Half a century on, this historic Lord’s Women’s Test has finally added the format to the “Home of Cricket’s” long list of firsts, and the sense of occasion around the ground reflected that.
More than 30,000 tickets were sold across all four days well before a ball was bowled — a number that organisers point to as evidence the women’s game has genuinely arrived at venues that once treated it as an afterthought. Members in the pavilion and fans on the terraces alike turned out in numbers rarely seen for a women’s fixture in England, and the atmosphere carried an energy more commonly associated with a marquee men’s fixture.
The timing adds another layer: England are playing this Test barely a week removed from a gutting defeat to Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup final, held at this very ground. For a side still processing that loss, a strong showing in the format they’ve historically dominated at home would go some way toward resetting the narrative. Head coach and team management have both spoken in the buildup about wanting Test cricket to serve as a proper reset after the disappointment of the white-ball tournament.
For India, the numbers are already favourable — they remain unbeaten in Tests on English soil, with two wins and seven draws from nine previous meetings, against England’s solitary victory in the format back in 1995. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur had spoken on the eve of the match about the need for a stronger domestic red-ball structure back home, noting that rare one-off Tests like this one make it difficult for players to build any real continuity in the format. Friday’s batting effort, though, suggested that whatever the structural gaps, the current group has no shortage of quality when the opportunity does come around.
This is also a personal milestone for Mandhana, who is playing her 300th international match for India — making her the youngest woman to reach that mark. She now sits among the format’s most prolific run-scorers and, going into this Test, was already the joint-holder of the most centuries in women’s international cricket. Her innings on day one, even falling short of three figures, was a reminder of why she remains India’s most reliable batter across formats.
The Squads
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Priya Punia and others.
England: Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Amy Jones, Heather Knight, Mady Villiers, Issy Wong and others.
What’s Next
More than 30,000 tickets have been sold across the four days — a strong signal of appetite for the women’s game at this level. With hot weather forecast through the match and the pitch expected to flatten out after an early-morning start with some seam movement, day two will be crucial in determining whether India can push for a substantial first-innings lead or whether England’s bowlers can pull things back.
England’s attack still has plenty of firepower left to call on. Sophie Ecclestone, England’s most successful bowler in women’s internationals, will be eager to strike again once the second new ball loses its shine, while the pace pairing of Filer and Bell will look to exploit any uneven bounce as the match wears on. India, for their part, will hope their middle order — including Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana lower down — can add the depth needed to post a total well beyond 300, on a ground where big first-innings scores have historically set up results.
Play resumes with Richa Ghosh at the crease after India lost Mandhana in the afternoon session, with the tourists still very much in the driving seat as day one draws to a close on this landmark occasion for the Lord’s Women’s Test.
