Lauren Cheatle is set to make her Test debut during their side’s match against India women at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
Lauren Cheatle Test debut in IND-AUS test match Mumbai stadium
The 25-year-old Lauren Cheatle will make her Test debut during the match against India. Australia is scheduled to play in a test match against India starting on December 21 at Mumbai Stadium. They lost four wickets before the 29th over. Tahalia McGrath scored a half-century in the match.
Recently India completed a three-match T20I series on England women’s tour of India 2023 where England won the series 2-1.
Alyssa Healy won the toss for the four-day clash and decided to bat first in the spin-friendly conditions. Lauren Cheatle is the 184th woman to play for Australia in tests. Quick Brown was omitted from Australia Xl, where Kim Garth and Cheatle were the two pacers in the playing Xl.
Based on the conditions, Australians have gone with three strong spin attacks featuring off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner, left-armer Jess Jonassen, and leg spinner Alana King.
This is the first Test Australia’s woman has played in India since 1984 long before any player on either team was born.
Cheatle made her Test debut after struggling with long long-lasting injury. She was set to make her Test debut on Ashes 2017 but was ruled out of a stress fracture in her back.
Her international career started in 2016 in India has also been cruelly interrupted by four shoulder reconstructions and a brush with skin cancer. This will be Cheatle’s first appearance for Australia since 2019.
“(Getting a Baggy Green) would be indescribable,” Cheatle said shortly after she arrived in Mumbai. “Growing up, it’s something you dream of as a kid in the backyard.
“I remember my brother and I used to play mini-Tests when the cricket was on TV, in the breaks we’d go in the backyard and one of us would always be England or Australia, and we had these fake little Baggies that we’d put on.
“So if there is an opportunity to wear a Baggy Green, it would be unbelievable,” she concluded.
Australia Playing XL squad
Beth Mooney, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Tahlia McGrath, Alyssa Heally (c, wk), Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Kim Garth, Lauren Cheatle
India Playing XL squad
Smriti Mandhana, Shefali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh.
