India Women have won the toss and have opted to field

17:45 IST, 12:15 GMT: Heather Knight and her women are set to embark on a quick tour to India just before Christmas and it kicks off today with the first of three T20Is which is then set to be followed by a highly-anticipated Test match. Relatively a leisurely tour by today’s standards, England won’t be required to leave the vicinity of Mumbai with the three T20Is all being played at the Wankhede while the DY Patil plays host to the Test match. With Knight already dubbing the tour as a "bucket list thing for any cricketer", it’s set to be an important and challenging couple of weeks. India head into the series with plenty of preparation having flown into Mumbai on the back of a four-day practice match followed by a three-day camp at the NCA in Bengaluru. With the T20I series possibly acting as one last unofficial audition before the WPL Auction on Saturday, December 9, players that are set to go under the hammer are likely to have a little bit of added motivation.

As for team news, Sophie Ecclestone is set to return to English colors after a fairly long injury lay-off while fresh faces in Shreyanka Patil and Saika Ishaque have earned their maiden call-ups to the Indian side. Another news of note is that DRS will be used for the first time ever in a women’s bilateral series in India. After getting a taste of quality women’s cricket in the previous year’s WPL, expect crowds to turn up in numbers as well for what’s essentially the beginning of a marquee home season for the Indian women.

Squads:

England Women Squad: Danielle Wyatt, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Heather Knight(c), Amy Jones(w), Sophie Ecclestone, Freya Kemp, Danielle Gibson, Charlotte Dean, Sarah Glenn, Mahika Gaur, Sophia Dunkley, Bess Heath, Lauren Bell, Nat Sciver-Brunt

India Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh(w), Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Titas Sadhu, Renuka Thakur Singh, Mannat Kashyap, Shreyanka Patil, Saika Ishaque, Kanika Ahuja, Yastika Bhatia, Minnu Mani