When Jhulan Goswami made her India debut back in January 2002, during an ODI versus England in Chennai, Mithali Raj had already experienced two-and-a-half years of international cricket.

The game has evolved, the country too has witnessed several changes since then, but the duo are still going strong. Not just in terms of contributing towards making the Indian team a formidable force in women’s cricket, but Mithali and Jhulan have also been central to more girls aspiring to take up the sport and make a career out of it.

The Indian women face a fresh challenge ahead in the form of their first-ever Day-Night pink-ball Test, versus Australia at Carrara Oval in Queensland’s Gold Coast beginning on Thursday. It goes without saying that for India to succeed in this unfamiliar territory, Mithali and Jhulan’s performances will be critical for the team.

Skipper Mithali, though, has enough faith in Jhulan and she also trusts her long-time colleague’s batting abilities, particularly how the 38-year-old pacer fared in the recent ODIs against the Aussies.

“Both Jhulan and I have been playing for a long time. I’ve seen her as a young bowler coming into the side.

“The Test back in England, where she got those crucial wickets for us (in 2014 at Wormsley which India won by six wickets), always comes to mind. But now that she is scoring runs, it’s so good to see her doing so because I have always emphasised that she can bat and add those valuable runs as well. So as a captain, I’m very happy to see her scoring runs,” Mithali said during an online interaction with Indian journalists on the eve of the one-off Test.

Jhulan’s presence is also a big advantage for other quicks such as Meghna Singh and Pooja Vastrakar, Mithali pointed out. “Getting wickets is a part of Jhulan’s skills and she has always done that for India.

“The best part about her is, she’s always around the young speedsters, trying to share her experiences and that is why having her around helps in nurturing players like Meghna and Pooja.”

More first-class games

For India women to establish themselves as a force to reckon with even in Test cricket, there needs to be more first-class matches at the domestic level, Mithali stressed.

“Clearly, if the girls need to do well in Tests, they have to have some match experience in the domestic circuit. So if this (Test matches) is going to be a regular feature, then probably we need to have another addition to our domestic calendar of playing the multi-days format,” the captain said.

More Tests at home will also help the women cricketers brush up their skills further to excel in the format, she added. “Home Tests will be quite significant because we do have the advantage.

“Girls also will get experience playing at home. Most of them have toured abroad, like most in the current squad have been part of the 2014 Test in England and the last one there,” Mithali stated.

Focus on seamers

With the drop-in pitch at Carrara Oval sporting a greenish look, both India and Australia may field a seam-dominant attack, though Mithali conceded about the visitors having “a bit of selection conundrum”.

“It’s a drop-in wicket here and looking at its nature, there could be more seamers in the side,” Mithali said.

“But yes, there is a bit of a selection conundrum here too, whether to go with seamers or a spin-dominant attack or whether we need to have off-spinners in the XI,” she added.

India, however, will be missing senior pro Harmanpreet Kaur as she is down with a thumb injury, which had also ruled her out of the ODI series.

Match starts: 10am IST