Heather Knight leads by example

NICK FRIEND AT BRISTOL: Until India's spinners had their say, this was a day for experienced heads, who have learnt – albeit at lengthy intervals – quite how to go about the longest form of the game

Bristol (first day of four): England 269-6, India

Scorecard

Test match cricket doesn’t come around all that often in the women’s game. When Heather Knight tossed the coin at Bristol on a pitch already infamous even before a ball had been bowled, she was cutting the ribbon on her eighth appearance in the sport’s longest format. Since her debut a decade ago in Australia, England’s men have played 128 times.

So, when Knight spoke ahead of this fixture – a first Test for England in two summers and a first for India in 2,401 days, when Shafali Verma was just 10 years of age – she called for patience on the occasion of her hundredth match as captain. The challenge, she explained, would be the same as it always is when the rare opportunity presents itself for her side to dust off their whites: learning how to negotiate an entirely different format for a one-off week, before returning to the bread and butter of limited-over fare.

For Sophia Dunkley, this would be her first experience and a moment of wider significance: she became the first black woman to play Test cricket for England on the back of the award of her central contract a week ago.

For India, who beat England and South Africa within three months of each other before their seven-year hiatus, Verma, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana and Taniya Bhatia were all handed maiden Test caps.

Thereafter, the day panned out much in the manner that Knight had foreseen: those who were new to this gradually got to grips with the unique toil of multiday cricket, with up to 100 overs due to be delivered on each of these four days, the first of which featured the kind of warm breeze so often followed by the thundery showers predicted to hit Nevil Road sporadically over the second half of this match.

Verma, who was seven months old when Katherine Brunt was first picked for a Test, took a fine short-leg catch to dismiss Tammy Beaumont: the diminutive opener had until then looked primed for a maiden Test century – a would-be landmark that would have added her name to a list currently housing Knight alone as the solitary England cricketer with hundreds across all three formats. That is a remarkable statistic, if only because the window of opportunity open to Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and others is so vast by comparison.

^{Jhulan Goswami never stopped running in for India}

Of India’s other novices, Bhatia kept tidily, Rana – in her first international appearance for five years – turned the match with her off-spin, while Vastrakar was the quickest seamer on show and Sharma – a known commodity on the limited-over circuit (and a former Kia Super League winner with Western Storm) – was economical, ahead of an important role to play with the bat when her time comes.

Dunkley, meanwhile, was initially an interested observer, watching on as her teammates tucked in after electing to make hay until her time came when Nat Sciver and Amy Jones fell in quick succession, both reviewing unsuccessfully in the process, as part of a collapse that saw four wickets fall for 21 in nine overs and left the game in the balance at the end of the first day.

If the debutantes were learning as the afternoon wore on, the senior stateswomen were simply remembering, before piecing back together what they already knew. The only surprise in Beaumont’s 66 was that it came to an end four runs short of her Test-best 70, so quietly assured had she looked in compiling a six-boundary knock in 144 deliveries.

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Opening the batting with Lauren Winfield-Hill at international level for the first time since 2017, they vindicated the decision to reunite their World Cup-winning partnership. After being dropped at first slip early on, Winfield-Hill was assertive and particularly fluent, depositing two sizeable sixes over the legside, before being well caught by Bhatia on 35.

And so, to Knight, who spent the days ahead of this Test playing the role of diplomat, a position she has taken up so impressively at several points in the last 12 months, speaking out on behalf of the women’s game as the circumstances of the pandemic threatened so much of the progress made in the recent past.

It is easy at times, therefore, to overlook the quality of her batsmanship: she was chanceless and a class apart at a ground where her face features on a mural as a reminder of her contribution through the KSL years, fittingly perhaps as an overseer of the game she represents with such integrity. Not once did she ever appear in any particular distress, picking off India’s spinners as an already-slow over rate threatened to ground almost entirely to a halt, with the hosts able to score seemingly without restriction.

^{Tammy Beaumont made 66 for England}

Not that they ever gave in: Harmanpreet Kaur was tried for her part-time off-spin – and should have had Sciver caught at midwicket – while Jhulan Goswami, a fine role model for any young cricketer, never stopped galloping to the crease with her idiosyncratic, long-limbed approach. The 38-year-old seamer pushed herself through 18 overs for precious little reward, but with plenty of heart and know-how.

When Knight finally fell, five runs short of a second Test hundred – a quite remarkable feat that would have been, given how rare these occasions are in the calendar – Goswami was the first to pat her on the back as she dragged herself disconsolate from the field, with only a slither of leather confirming Sue Redfern’s on-field decision after Knight reviewed more in forlorn hope than any expectation. It only lasted a split second, but it was a moment of respect between two of the sport’s titans.

At some stage, it will be the turn of Mithali Raj – another, like Knight and Goswami, who knows the ropes of the Test arena. In truth, until Rana had her say, that was the story of proceedings: a day for experienced heads, who have learnt – albeit at lengthy intervals – quite how to go about the longest form of the game.