England’s Kate Cross calls for more red-ball cricket

England’s Test against India in Bristol will be their first since July 2019 while their visitors haven’t played a red-ball international since November 2014

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Kate Cross has called for more red-ball cricket to be played in the women’s game, stating the format is where players 'learn the real skill of cricket.'

England's women's side are currently in Bristol, preparing for their one-off Test against India, scheduled to start on June 16, which will be their first taste of red-ball cricket since July 2019 when they faced Australia at Taunton. For India, however, the wait has been even longer with their last red-ball international coming against South Africa in November 2014.

Cross, herself, only has three Test caps among her 44 international appearances and hasn’t featured in a four-day match for nearly six years.

Speaking ahead England’s multi-format series with India, the 29-year-old revealed the excitement within the home camp to have the opportunity to play a Test match and her desire for the longest form of the game to become more mainstream in women’s cricket.

"It doesn’t come around very often for us, so it’s really special when it does," she said. "We all get very excited when the whites come out so we’re looking forward to getting going on Wednesday. It’s something we really enjoy when we get the opportunity to do it and embrace it as much as possible because we know we’ve only got one opportunity to play a Test match this summer and we want it to be a good spectacle. We’d love to play a bit more of it.

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Kate Cross bowling against India at Wormsley in 2014

"I’m a big advocate for [red-ball cricket]. The longer format is where you learn the real skills of cricket – how to defend good bowling, how to bowl longer and be relentless hitting line and length – and I don’t think it would be a bad thing to play a long format, whether that’s two or three days, at domestic level.

"I think in the next five years, we might get to a point where we can do that. Obviously, it’s really important in the next 12 months to establish what we’ve got now with the 50-over competition and the T20, and obviously The Hundred. I don’t think there’s any harm in doing it and I’m quite positive about the fact it could potentially happen.”

On the subject of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Cross believes the competition, which was launched in summer 2020, and the introduction of regional contracts is helping to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket. Indeed, the likes of Emily Arlott and Tash Farrant have received call-ups off the back of their domestic form.

Addressing the competition within the squad, Cross said: "I’m not going to say it’s exciting, it’s not; it’s always a worry when you’ve got people working hard to take your spot! But it’s great for the team and our environment, and it goes to show how important these regional contracts and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy are.

"The fact Tash was able to put in the performances and then come over and play in New Zealand, it was quite an easy transition. In the past it’s [been] difficult to move from county cricket to international cricket but now I feel the transition is a lot easier. It’s great for the likes of Em Arlott, she’s put her hand up in the Rachael Heyhoe and she’s with us this week and hopefully it’s going to be a great experience for her.

VISIT THE WOMEN'S REGIONAL HUB

"It goes to show the depth we’ve got in the country and not just in terms of seamers – we’ve got lots of people knocking on the door.

Continuing to expand on the less familiar faces in the England squad, Cross added: "They’re both bowling really well. It’s quite exciting to see Em. She’s a tall fast bowler, which you don’t see very often in the women’s game, so she hits a harder length and has got that extra bit of pace. And Tash is naturally good at swinging the ball, so she offers something different with the left-arm option.

"It’s exiting to have options in the squad. I’m not sure what the team’s going to be, but when you’re playing a Test match you need your bowlers to stand up and take 20 wickets over four days. Hopefully, the depth of squad will be able to do that.”

Looking ahead to the match in question, Cross believes England are in a good place despite their lack of red-ball preparation and, more importantly, won’t make the same mistakes as 2014 when they underestimated India and lost by six wickets in Wormsley.

"It’s difficult because there’s not much time in the schedule to prepare for red-ball cricket," she said. "We’re quite lucky this summer that we start with a Test so we can purely focus on red-ball cricket, which is what we’ve done. We’ve just come from Loughborough, and we had five or six days there working on red-ball and having specific discussions. And we got the opportunity to play an intra-squad game a couple of weeks ago and get a feel for what red-ball cricket looks like.

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Tash Farrant, pictured bowling against New Zealand, could make her Test debut against India

"Any time we play India, it’s always a great contest and saw that in 2014. It was the first time they’d played cricket in a long time and the fact they beat us goes to show we’re not going to take anything for granted in this format. We probably went into that game a bit naively, thinking we’d played more Test cricket than India had in the four or five years leading up to that.

"It was probably a good leveller for us that they came out , played hard fought cricket and beat us quite convincingly. It goes to show there’s nothing to take for granted and preparation is key. We’ve trained really hard over the past seven or eight weeks; we’re all feeling good and are ready to go."

However, whatever the outcome, Cross is just happy to have lots of international cricket in the diary for 2021: "It’s a big year for everyone, especially off the back of the pandemic. It’s so nice to have a lot of cricket back-to-back. We’ve got The Hundred, then New Zealand come over, then Pakistan, then into an Ashes and another World Cup.

"I’ve always said that’s how we should have the women’s game. Our ratio of training to playing has been quite heavily weighted towards the training side, so it’s nice we’ve actually got a lot of cricket to look forward to. Hopefully, some opportunities come up and I get the opportunity to stick my hand up and help the team win some games."

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