Bangladesh women’s cricket team gets Test status

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to grant ODI and Test status to all full-member women’s cricket teams. It means that Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan are now free to play Test cricket.

Thus far, only ten teams, namely India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, Netherlands, Ireland, England, Australia, and Pakistan have had the privilege of playing Test cricket.

“It was decided that Test and ODI status shall be permanently awarded to all Full Member women’s teams,” the apex cricket board was quoted as saying on Thursday, April 1, reported by BDcrictime.

Bangladesh’s journey

Bangladesh women’s international cricket started in 2011 when they beat the United States of America (USA) to bag the ODI status for the first time. Thereafter, in 2018, they won the Asia Cup for the first time after they beat India in the final in Malaysia.

Bangladesh haven’t played a 50-over World Cup though, and have taken part in four T20 World Cups. They last played at the highest level in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia. They ended up losing all their games and couldn’t make much of an impact.

Two of their cricketers have also played in the Women’s T20 Challenge, a tournament hosted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Jahanara Alam was the first cricketer to take part in 2019 after which national skipper Salma Khatun joined her in 2020. In 2019, Jahanara also won the award for the ‘Ball of the WIPL’ after she got the wickets of Sophie Devine and Natalie Sciver in the final.

As far as Test cricket is concerned, England have played the highest number of women’s Test matches (95) followed by Australia (74). New Zealand and India have played 45 and 36 matches each. South Africa and West Indies have played 12 Tests each.

Pakistan have played three Tests while Sri Lanka have taken part in only one Test. Netherlands and Ireland are the only associate nations to play Test cricket. Ireland played in 2000 against Pakistan and won by an innings in Dublin.

The Netherlands played hosts to South Africa seven years later. Back in 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland were inducted into the ICC’s full-member club.