India Women will play a Test match in Australia for the first time in 15 years during their tour of the country in September. ESPNcricinfo has learned that the solitary Test match will feature as part of the bilateral series which is also expected to feature a white-ball segment, details of which are yet to be announced by Cricket Australia or BCCI.
The September Test will be India's first in Australia since the Adelaide Test in 2006. In all, Australia and India have played five Tests, with Australia having a 4-0 record along with a draw. Both countries played their first women's Test in 1976, followed by a three-Test series in 1990-91 and then the last one in 2006.
For India, who are led by Mithali Raj, this is a rare occasion when they play two Tests in the same calendar year, the last being in 2014. India will play a Test in Bristol from June 16 against England, their first since a home Test against South Africa in nearly seven years.
That India are scheduled to tour Australia in September was not put out either by CA or BCCI but revealed by Australia fast bowler Megan Schutt, who was talking on a podcast recently. Schutt told No Balls: The Cricket Podcast recently that Australia's next assignment will be at home mid-September against India with a preparatory camp in Darwin.
The tour originally consisted of three ODIs and was scheduled for January this year, but in December 2020 a report on the CA website said the assignment would be rescheduled for the 2021-22 season and would be expanded to include three T20Is.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo