England named a 17-member squad to be led by Heather Knight for the one-off Test against India starting from June 16 in Bristol.

The match will mark the return of the Indian team to the longest format for the first time since 2014. The last Test match that Mithali Raj and her team played was against South Africa at Mysuru in December that year, where earlier the team played a Test in England too.

England, however, have played Test cricket a little more frequently as part of the multi-format Ashes series against arch-rivals Australia.

Pause, rewind, play: When Mithali Raj & Co stunned England in 2014, the last year they played a Test

Emily Arlott, fresh off a hat-trick in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at the weekend, earned a maiden call-up while South East Stars captain Tash Farrant is also included, the England board statement said.

The squad will be trimmed ahead of the Test match to allow non-selected players to play in the next round of the RHF Trophy.

Nat Sciver will become vice-captain across all forms of international cricket, the statement added.

England squad for one-off Test: Heather Knight (C), Nat Sciver (VC), Emily Arlott, Tammy Beaumont , Katherine Brunt , Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Sophia Dunkley , Sophie Ecclestone, Georgia Elwiss, Tash Farrant, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Anya Shrubsole, Mady Villiers, Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield-Hill

“It’s been hard to pick a squad given the balance of needing cover in a COVID world while wanting to give players as much chance as possible to play cricket,” head coach Lisa Keightley said:

“We want players to have opportunities out in the middle so we’re looking to reduce our numbers slightly ahead of the Test to give the non-selected players that chance.

“I’m really excited by the summer ahead. We’ve been working really hard across the last 10 weeks, India are a strong side and it’s the beginning of a two-year journey for us that takes in two ICC World Cups, an Ashes and the Commonwealth Games.”

 India’s squad for Test (and ODIs): Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.