CHENNAI: When India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt lock horns at the Chepauk in the one-off Test — the first between two teams since 2014 — on Friday, the duo would wish to savour every moment of it.
"Obviously it's a great opportunity for all of us and as a player we always want to play red-ball cricket and now we are getting that we are very happy. And then in the last two Test matches we played really good cricket and here also this Test (Chennai) also we are looking for some positive results and hopefully we will deliver," Kaur on the eve of the match.
Coming into the Test, India have beaten South Africa 3-0 in ODIs and will have to shift to the longer format immediately.
India women head coach Amol Muzumdar insists that his team will not have a big problem in making the shift. "We enjoy playing all three formats, but Tests are always special. After back-to-back Tests against England and Australia in December, it was great on BCCI's part to include the inter-zonal in the multi-day format and they are all so used to playing red-ball cricket," said Muzumdar.
India all-rounder Deepti Sharma had led East Zone to the title in the revamped inter-zonal multi-day event that was held in April. In Chennai, however, all eyes will be on those who are back in the Indian team for the longest format — Shubha Satheesh, Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad. "All those players are very important, and we did have a bowlers' camp at the NCA. They were specifically given the red-ball. They were told a few things to do while their weekly chart was organised and given to them. They had a practice session yesterday. They look absolutely fine. They are completely fresh and raring to go," said Muzumdar.
For South Africa, their last Test was against Australia in Perth this February, which the latter won comprehensively. For them to do well, captain Wolvaardt and all-rounder Marizanne Kapp will have to step up, while spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba makes the most of the conditions in Chennai.
"Getting to play more Test cricket regularly is awesome. So I think this Test will be a huge challenge for us and hope we come good," said Wolvaardt.
Meanwhile, Kaur is not worried too much and is confident that the team will be able to adapt. ''Well the last couple of days it's been raining, but yeah the wicket looks really good and we are also hoping that after maybe one or two days it will start turning. And the last two Test games when we played in Mumbai there also the wicket was behaving very similarly. We don't have much experience in Chennai wickets and the practice sessions will definitely give us some idea and we'll see how it goes," said Kaur.