Maybe it's late but not too late. Still I'm playing.
One hundred and forty-two years after India's men first played at Lord's, the women's team arrived and left with a victory that belonged not only to them. On a Monday afternoon in London, India defeated England by 270 runs in the first women's Test ever staged at the Home of Cricket — a result that closed a fifty-year arc stretching back to 1973, when a small association was founded on conviction and very little else. The players who made history on the honours boards came from small towns and modest beginnings, and they were careful to say so: this win, they insisted, was inherited as much as it was earned.
- India's 270-run victory — the largest ever by a visiting team against England in women's Tests — announced itself as a landmark the moment the final wicket fell.
- Two players from small Indian towns, Kranti Gaud and Yastika Bhatia, became the first women ever inscribed on Lord's bowling and batting honours boards, making personal history inseparable from national history.
- A record crowd of 37,846 across four days signalled that women's Test cricket at the game's most storied ground could command the attention it had long been denied.
- The players themselves introduced a note of tension into the celebration, insisting that the pioneers who built Indian women's cricket over five decades had never received the recognition they deserved.
- The victory extends India's unbeaten Test record in England to ten matches and arrives eight months after their first senior Women's ODI World Cup triumph, tracing a trajectory that feels less like momentum and more like arrival.
On a Monday afternoon at Lord's, Sneh Rana's off-spin delivery slipped between bat and pad to end England's second innings at 186. India had won by 270 runs — the largest margin ever recorded by a visiting team against England in women's Tests, and the first women's Test victory at Lord's in the format's history. The match had taken place 142 years after India's men first played there.
Throughout the four days, India's players returned again and again to the same theme: the women who had built the game before them. The Women's Cricket Association of India was founded in 1973 by Mahendra Kumar Sharma with volunteers, limited funds, and absolute conviction. In 1976, Shantha Rangaswamy captained India in their first officially recognised international series. In 1986, the team made their first tour of England. Now, forty years on, Harmanpreet Kaur's side had preserved an unbeaten English record across ten matches.
The personal stories carried the historical weight. Kranti Gaud, 22, from a small town in central India — whose mother had once pawned her jewellery to buy her a cricket kit — took five wickets for 37 in England's first innings and became the first woman on Lord's bowling honours board. The following day, Yastika Bhatia scored 113, her first international century, and became the first woman on the batting board. At the post-match press conference, Bhatia spoke plainly about the debt: the pioneers had made a contribution that deserved recognition they had never received, and this victory belonged to them too.
The match itself was a collective effort. Smriti Mandhana scored 153, the highest individual tally of the game, and became only the second Indian woman after Sandhya Agarwal to score 70 or more in both innings of a Test. Harmanpreet, Deepti Sharma, and Richa Ghosh all made half-centuries. The spin trio of Rana, Deepti, and debutant N Sree Charani controlled England's batsmen across both innings.
Harmanpreet, now 37, was playing only the eighth Test of a seventeen-year international career — a reminder of how rarely her generation had been given the longest format. Before the match, she had reflected on the improbability of the moment. 'Maybe it's late but not too late,' she said. A crowd of 37,846 across four days — the highest cumulative attendance ever recorded for a women's Test — had gathered to watch. None of India's pioneers were present. Through the players who were, they remained at the centre of the story.
On a Monday afternoon at Lord's, Sneh Rana released a delivery that would complete a fifty-year arc. The off-spinner from a small northern Indian town floated the ball outside the off stump, watched it dip and grip, and saw it slip between bat and pad to upend Sophie Ecclestone's stumps. England were all out for 186. India had won by 270 runs—the largest margin ever recorded by a visiting team against England in women's Tests, and the fourth largest in the format's entire history.
But the victory meant something larger than the scoreline. Throughout the match, India's players had spoken repeatedly of the women who came before them, the pioneers who built women's cricket in India from nothing. Harmanpreet Kaur's team was not celebrating alone. They were celebrating on behalf of everyone who had laid the groundwork across five decades, beginning in 1973 when Mahendra Kumar Sharma founded the Women's Cricket Association of India with volunteers, limited money, and absolute conviction. This was the first women's Test ever played at Lord's—142 years after the men's team took the field there—and India had won it.
The personal stories crystallized the historical weight. Kranti Gaud, a 22-year-old seam bowler from Ghuwara, a small town in central India, took five wickets for 37 runs in England's first innings and became the first woman ever inscribed on Lord's bowling honours board. Her mother had once pawned her jewellery to buy her a cricket kit. A day later, Yastika Bhatia, a left-handed batter from Vadodara in western India, scored 113 runs—her first international century—and became the first woman to score a Test hundred at Lord's, earning her place on the batting board. Neither player invented her own opportunity. Both understood they were standing on the shoulders of women whose names few remembered.
Bhatia spoke directly to this debt at the post-match press conference. The pioneers of Indian women's cricket, she said, had made an invaluable contribution that deserved recognition they had never received. "Their contribution has inspired us to take up cricket and to perform the way we are doing today," she said. "We should now take a moment to thank them for their contribution and what they have done for Indian cricket, for world cricket, and inspired so many young cricketers." The victory had arrived eight months after India won their first senior Women's ODI World Cup, and two weeks after a disappointing T20 World Cup exit at the same ground. This Test win felt like vindication of a different kind.
The match itself was a distributed masterpiece. Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana scored 153 runs, the highest individual tally of the game. Harmanpreet, Deepti, and Richa Ghosh all made half-centuries. The spin trio of Rana, Deepti, and debutant N Sree Charani controlled the English batsmen with precision. Sayali Satghare bowled with pace. Every session produced a different match-winner. The scorebook connected generations: Mandhana became only the second Indian woman after Sandhya Agarwal to score 70 or more in both innings of a Test. Rana's fourth haul of four or more wickets in ten Test innings drew her level with Neetu David, behind only Kulkarni and Jhulan Goswami.
Harmanpreet, now 37, was playing only the eighth Test of her seventeen-year international career—a stark reminder of how few opportunities her generation had received in the longest format. Before the match, she had reflected on the improbability of being present for this moment at all. "Maybe it's late but not too late. Still I'm playing and still getting this opportunity to be part of this historic day," she said. As India's most successful Test captain with four victories, she had inherited a legacy from Mithali Raj's three. She was also inheriting the weight of fifty years of struggle.
The history ran deep. In 1976, three years after the WCAI was founded, Shantha Rangaswamy of Bengaluru captained India in their first officially recognised international series—a six-Test contest against West Indies. India won their maiden international victory in the fourth Test in Patna. A decade later, in 1986, India made their first tour of England, playing three Tests and three ODIs. Shubhangi Kulkarni captained the opening Test at Wetherby. Diana Edulji led the remaining two at Blackpool and Worcester. Now, forty years later, Harmanpreet and her team had preserved India's unbeaten record in England—ten matches, three wins, seven draws.
The crowds that gathered across four days numbered 37,846 in total, the highest cumulative attendance ever recorded for a women's Test. Sachin Tendulkar was present on the final day, exactly twenty-four years after helping India win the NatWest Series final at Lord's under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy. ICC chairman Jay Shah and several BCCI officials attended. Yet none of India's pioneers were there to witness it. Through Harmanpreet and Bhatia and Gaud, however, they remained at the centre of the story. Fifty years after India's women entered international cricket, a journey that had begun on modest grounds across the country had reached its defining moment at the Home of Cricket.
Citas Notables
Their contribution has inspired us to take up cricket and to perform the way we are doing today. We should now take a moment to thank them for their contribution.— Yastika Bhatia, on the pioneers of Indian women's cricket
Maybe it's late but not too late. Still I'm playing and still getting this opportunity to be part of this historic day.— Harmanpreet Kaur, before the match
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does this victory feel different from other Test wins?
Because it's not just about what happened on the field. It's about fifty years of women who played with almost no resources, no recognition, no guarantee anyone would ever remember them. This win is their vindication.
The players kept talking about the pioneers. Did they feel obligated to do that, or was it genuine?
Both, probably. But listen to what Yastika said—she wasn't performing gratitude. She was naming a real debt. These women literally pawned jewellery to buy cricket kits. The pioneers didn't get honours boards. They got forgotten. So yes, there's obligation, but it's the kind that comes from understanding you wouldn't exist without them.
What strikes you most about the individual stories—Gaud, Bhatia?
That they're from small towns. Ghuwara. Vadodara. Not Delhi, not Mumbai. The infrastructure for women's cricket in India is still so thin that a girl from a small town making it to Lord's and scoring a century there—that's not just personal achievement. That's structural change happening in real time.
Harmanpreet is 37 and has only played eight Tests in seventeen years. That's brutal.
It is. And she knows it. She said "maybe it's late but not too late." That's not bitterness. That's someone who understands she's lucky to be there at all, even at the tail end of her career. The system didn't give her opportunities. She had to wait for the system to change.
The attendance figure—37,846 across four days. Does that suggest something is shifting?
It suggests people want to watch women's cricket when they're given the chance. The question is whether Lord's and the ECB and the ICC will keep giving that chance, or whether this was a one-off moment of attention.