‘Onus on seniors to explain Tests to young players’
KOLKATA: Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj made their Test debuts together, in January 2002 against England. In 10 Tests, Goswami has 40 wickets including three five-wicket hauls. Her best match figure of 10/78 too has come against England, in Taunton in 2006. Before leaving for Mumbai on Wednesday, where the India team will quarantine, the medium-pacer, who has 233 ODI wickets and is the first woman in the history of the game to reach 200 wickets, spoke about the series in England which includes a oneoff Test in Bristol beginning on June 16. Excerpts:
How difficult is it going to be playing a Test after nearly seven years?
Seven years is a long time and in all this while we focused on the shorter formats because of ICC events. To promote women’s cricket, the accent has been on the shorter formats. So every country, barring England and Australia who play Tests because of the Ashes, has prioritised them over Tests. It is not just about blaming BCCI for not arranging Tests for women, India also need to have opponents to play with! 2014 was when we last played against South Africa. We didn’t know it would be our last Test.
So, getting to play a Test after such a long time has got me excited and nervous. There are lots of questions going through my mind now and I am sure of the other team members too. Will we be able to adapt to the format because this won’t be an innings of 80 minutes? Will we be able to switch off and switch on at the right moments because no one can concentrate for 90 overs? There will be sessions when we won’t get a wicket and there will be sessions when all we get is a chance and we have to take it. So, mentally we have to be very strong and physically too because how else will you last a day and over the course of a game take 20 wickets? Tests are won by bowlers. Always.
Add to that we will have a number of newcomers, so it will be a big challenge. White-ball cricket has got them all to play those deliveries outside offstump. It is one of the habits that will need to be controlled. So, it is a challenge for all of us. I can’t thank BCCI enough for organising this series at this time.
Must have been difficult to focus on cricket now.
Look, we are professionals. And in our way, we have tried to be ready through the year of lockdowns and travel restrictions (a lockdown began in Kolkata on Sunday). So, no excuses. Even the opposition, I think, have not been able to get ready like they would have wanted to. This (Covid-19) is happening all over the world.
How are you preparing for something you haven’t done for so long?
I am making do with what I can. I have trained hard over the past year, often scheduling sessions very early in the day to ensure that I could be alone. Of course, I am drawing on my experience of all these years. I have tried my best to tick all the boxes. Let’s see how it all turns out once I get to England. Playing in England is different as the weather plays a big role. And you will need to change your length because the length you bowl in India won’t work there. Hopefully, once we end our quarantine and get to the ground, we will prepare as a team, and as individuals.
Describe your 4/48 in the second innings of the last Test in England (Aug 2014).
That was a different kind of experience because we hadn’t played a Test after 2006. That meant seven to eight debutants! Think only Mithali, me and Karuna Jain had played a Test before. It was played on a green top. But it was special beating England in England (India won by six wickets). We had done that in 2006 too. So, good memories, but this is a fresh challenge.
How important will your role be given that there will be so many debutants this time too?
There will be responsibility on seniors to guide the young players, explain to them how situations change in Test cricket, when a partnership needs to be broken, how to build one. It is all about being alive to the situation because only then you increase chances of taking the right decision. Of course, there will be a lot of discussions so it is not just me who will be doing all this. But this is how you pass the baton.
How did you prepare for your first Test, in Jan 2002?
I didn’t, really. All I knew was that Tests were the ultimate challenge and I wanted to play one. But the wicket in Lucknow was so flat that I realised only one specialist fast bowler would play; so I was nervous whether I would be in the 11. It was not a great experience as I went wicketless, unlike in my ODI debut when I took a wicket in my second or third over. But I learnt what length to bowl on such a pitch. That helped when I played my next Test in South Africa.
Did it help there was some domestic multi-day cricket unlike now?
But we didn’t have T20 then. A tour would usually comprise four or five ODIs and often a Test or two. And the domestic season would have a number of two-day inter-state games. We had a number of multi-day competitions, among them inter-state meets involving Bengal, Bihar, Orissa (now Odisha), Assam.