The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced Indian women's all-format series schedule against South Africa. The series is set to take in two Indian cities - Bengaluru and Chennai - in June and July.
"The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the upcoming South Africa Women’s IDFC First Bank all-format tour of India. India will host South Africa for three ODIs, one Test and three T20Is," BCCI wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
The series will first have a One-Day Warmup game on June 13 in Bengaluru, followed by three ODIs at the same venue on 16th, 19th and 19th June, respectively. The action will then shift to Chennai for a one-off Test and three T20Is.
The four-day Test will take place from June 28 to July 1. The three T20Is will take place on July 5, 7 and 9. To take continuity of formats into account, the T20I series is being held in the last. The one-off Test was originally not part of the ICC future Tour program but was added as the Indian Board and the Proteas Board looked to promote women's Tests.
This will be the Women in Blue's third Test match in seven months as they hosted England and Australia in December 2023. The Indian Board also reintroduced a red-ball tournament recently. The tournament will be of inter-zone level with five matches in it.
The Indian women recently faced Bangladesh in a five-match T20I series and white-washed their opponents with a 5-0 win. Captain Harmanpreet was impressed with the team's performance in the series. "The calmness all the players showed in the series is something I would like to take to the World Cup," she said after India's 5-0 win. "There was some calmness while batting, while bowling and even in the fielding even though we made some mistakes [today], we know how we can improve, and in the next one month, we will work hard on that," she added.
Kaur also credited WPL for giving the players confidence. "The WPL gave our players a lot of confidence. Because the way a lot of us played in the WPL, we have improved our game during that time, and those results are giving results here. We just need to keep doing the right things, and results will come," she added further.
There is a T20 World Cup also scheduled to take place in October-November later this year in Bangladesh. The women will have their eyes set on that tournament too.
