Tammy Beaumont column: I love Test cricket and we want to play more of it

TAMMY BEAUMONT: You're having to pick up from where you left off each time a Test comes around, but without developing as a player. It's hard to say you want to be the best Test player in the world when there really aren't that many being played

What a strange week it's been. We all thought there'd have been far more cricket, and the weather has just been quite demoralising.

To sit and watch it rain through two matches was pretty tough. It means that coming into the Test, where there are more points on offer than in any other game, we haven't played very much.

It's hard, when you've got an important series like the Ashes, to have two games washed out. There is definitely a case for a reserve day. That World Cup semi-final two years ago when we got rained off against India and eliminated because there wasn't a contingency plan still grates quite a lot.

We get so many Aussies telling us we've brought the weather with us, when actually we've probably had fewer games rained off in England over the past two or three years! I think there should be one reserve day – maybe not a reserve day for every game – but one across the series where you could still get those games in.

A three-match ODI series or a three-match T20I series really isn't a lot of cricket. So, when you lose a third of that schedule to rain, it is hard. There's a lot of pressure on us now to win this Test match, to go out there and play well. But typically, you have a look at the forecast for Canberra over the next week and it now looks like we might lose a day to rain.

I think in this case, that feeling has been heightened because we've all had to make a few concessions: we weren't meant to be playing that T20 series at that time – we were meant to be playing it after the Test match but, because of the 10-day quarantine waiting for us in New Zealand ahead of the World Cup, that had to change. It has never been ideal this winter, with Covid.

We just have to get on with it because the Test is a huge challenge. I've played five in my career and there have been four draws, as well as one defeat against India.

^{Beaumont is preparing for her sixth Test appearance in nine years (Mark Evans/Getty Images)}

I saw Katherine Brunt's interview on Monday, where she talked about the importance of five-day Tests, the problems with the Kookaburra ball and her theory on shortening the pitch slightly.

I certainly share her views on five-day Tests. I do see both sides – white-ball women's cricket is marketable now and everything is about getting it on TV. That's where a lot of our investment comes from, and we really need it. But at the same time, if we're going to play Test cricket, then it has to be over five days.

I'm not sure about a shorter wicket: I think that makes things quite difficult from a grassroots perspective. We've been playing at the Adelaide Oval, where they've got a Big Bash game on one day and they wouldn't be able to prepare a 20-yard pitch for us a day later. I think it would risk segregating the genders quite a lot.

"It's really hard to say you want to be the best Test player in the world when there really aren't that many being played"

Even as an opening batter, I'd be up for a ball that does a little bit more than the Kookaburra. Likewise, we need better pitches for a fair contest between bat and ball. In recent times, we've played Test cricket on some quite flat wickets where, if you don’t want to get out then you're not going to be got out.

That said, I think the pitch debate is interesting: what constitutes a good pitch for a women's Test is slightly different to a good pitch for a men's Test. When we played at Taunton against Australia in 2019, the groundsman said that it always spins on the third and fourth day in county cricket. But we didn't ruin the pitch enough by creating footmarks, so it didn't really spin.

Because we don't bowl as fast and we're not as heavy, we don't actually wear the pitch down as much, regardless of whether we lose a day or two to rain. Even if there was a fifth day, on some of the surfaces we've played our Tests on, I don’t think we’d get the amount of wear that a men's team would be able to create.

^{Beaumont has developed plenty of rarely-used short leg skills during her brief Test career (Ashley Allen/Getty Images)}

Encouragingly, I looked at the wicket at Manuka Oval ahead of the game and, while I think they're going to cut it a little more, there's a fair bit of grass on it. I think it'll actually do a bit for the seamers. That will be helpful as far as producing a result is concerned.

Our strategy has to be based around taking wickets early and pushing Australia onto the back foot. But we can't go chasing wickets – we have to build pressure and stay patient. Speaking for the bowlers, though, that is a really difficult mindset to adjust to, given how much white-ball cricket we play – and even more so in these circumstances. You have to spend a couple of overs building something to create the wicket-taking ball instead of changing tack after two balls to avoid becoming predictable, as in a T20 game.

I do think playing some red-ball cricket at regional level would help – I think that's definitely something for the future. These girls are full-time professionals now, so there's no reason why there couldn't be a three-day game midweek. That would prevent players from coming into a Test environment without knowing what to do in a red-ball scenario. I think that's why Sophia Dunkley's half-century on debut was so impressive last summer – she did that without any real foundation in red-ball cricket.

"My Test career - 198 runs in five games - spans nine years, and I've only missed two in that time. In roughly the same period, I've played almost 100 T20Is"

When I look back to my Test debut, it came four years after my first ODI. And opening in the batting in a Test match, which I've done in three games now, has made me a better 50-over player. There are times when you get on a green seamer in women's cricket and you do just have to bat properly for 40 overs on a wicket that's doing a bit rather than exploit the powerplay.

I also think it's important that other nations try to play some Test cricket. India are really keen for more – South Africa played against them a few years ago. Other teams have to take on that mantle, getting more girls playing the longest format and trying to own that space. I think we should be including a Test each summer.

The multiformat system started with the Women's Ashes in 2013, and I know it was trialled in the men's game but it didn't work because the squads in the men's game are far too different. But in the women's game, it still would really work. There are probably one or two changes in your team across formats. Take Danni Wyatt, she's our T20 opener but she's still desperate to play in a Test match. So, it's still one squad playing for one trophy. I can't see why adding a one-off Test to most multiformat series wouldn't work.

^{Beaumont looked in fine touch during the series opener at Adelaide Oval (Mark Brake/Getty Images)}

As a kid growing up, my biggest dream in terms of playing for England was to win an Ashes Test. But that dream probably came from watching men's cricket and knowing that the Ashes – in England, anyway – is the big series that everyone looks at. I'm a child of the 2005 Ashes era, so I remember seeing the party in Trafalgar Square, when the women were invited after beating Australia for the first time in 42 years.

But growing up now, I think it would be hard to feel the same as I did. You don't judge yourself as much on what you do in Test cricket as in other formats. My Test career – 198 runs in five games – spans nine years, and I've only missed two in that time. In roughly the same period, I've played almost 100 T20Is.

So, you know more about the white-ball game, how you play it and how you want to be judged at the end of your career than with Test cricket. Yes, we played two Tests this year, but they are so rare. You're having to pick up from where you left off each time but without developing as a player. It's really hard to say you want to be the best Test player in the world when there really aren't that many being played.

We normally have a three-day warmup game, and that's where you have to do all your learning. At times, we probably go too far the other way, trying to survive and not get out instead of fully appreciating the art of Test cricket and some of the nuances in the tactics of how to prize a wicket out. It is tough – you do have to wing it most of the time, but having had that game last summer and having trained for red-ball cricket in Oman on our winter camp, we're confident.

Just finally – and on a different note – I want to wish Tayla Vlaeminck all the best with the recovery from her injury. She hit me with a pretty good bouncer in the first T20, but she's missing the rest of the series and the World Cup with a foot problem.