“A day I will always cherish”: 50 years on, Shubhangi Kulkarni recalls playing in India’s first-ever women’s Test

Kochi Saturday marks a less remembered but a significant half-century for Indian sport. It was on October 31 in 1976 that the first women’s Test between India and the West Indies got underway at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. In the 50 years since, India may have played only 42 Tests more, and that is an issue no doubt, but women’s cricket has changed beyond recognition, with teams across the world getting to play so many limited-overs games right through the year. It was only on Wednesday that India played Zimbabwe in an ODI at Vadodara.