Pratika Rawal ruled out of India’s Lord’s Test as Priya Punia earns a call-up
India have lost in-form opener Pratika Rawal to a knee injury on the eve of their historic one-off Test at Lord’s, handing uncapped Priya Punia a shot at a debut on the game’s grandest stage.
Jul 9, 2026
The one-off Test against England, the first women’s Test Lord’s has staged, begins on Friday July 10 and runs to July 13. India confirmed Rawal’s withdrawal on the eve of the match, an unwelcome complication before a fixture the players have talked up all summer.
A cut that needed stitches
Rawal picked up the injury away from the main tour. Head coach Amol Muzumdar told reporters she suffered a cut on the knee that required stitches while fielding in the second one-dayer against England A in Taunton last week. The wound was enough to keep her out of contention for Lord’s, and India chose to bring in cover rather than gamble on her fitness.
It is a frustrating setback for a batter who has worked her way into India’s plans over the past year as an opener alongside Smriti Mandhana. Her absence removes an established top-order option from a group that has little red-ball cricket between them to begin with.
Punia gets her chance
Punia comes in on the back of a productive A series. The right-hander made two half-centuries and finished as India’s leading run-scorer in the three-match one-day series against England A, an opener’s return that made her the obvious call when the selectors needed a like-for-like replacement. She is yet to play a Test, so a first cap at Lord’s, should she make the eleven, would be about as memorable a debut as the format offers.
Whether Punia walks straight into the side or India reshuffle the order is the question now facing Muzumdar and captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Mandhana, named vice-captain for the Test, is the one certainty at the top; the partner slot beside her has suddenly opened up.
A big occasion made trickier
The timing stings because of what the match represents. Lord’s has never hosted a women’s Test in more than two centuries of cricket, and this one arrives 50 years after Rachael Heyhoe Flint first led an England side onto the main ground in 1976. India, still sore from a group-stage exit at the Women’s T20 World Cup, wanted their strongest hand for a return to red-ball cricket that asks very different questions of the same players.
Rawal’s absence does not shrink the size of the occasion, only India’s shape going into it. A squad already short on Test mileage now has one fewer familiar face at the top, and a player uncapped at this level could find herself walking out at the Home of Cricket on Friday.