England vs India – Tammy Beaumont is having the time of his international career having done it all

On Friday, she will repeat the exercise for the 261st and final time in her 17-year international career, but with a much higher profile attached to the occasion. She admitted the moment had been “a long time coming” – especially after being omitted from England’s 50-over plans following last year’s World Cup exit – but she would be no less emotional because of it. Either way, the women’s first Test at Lord’s will be a truly fitting stage for Beaumont’s final international match.

“In my lifetime, women couldn’t even go to the ward and couldn’t become MCC members, but now it looks like the ward is going to be packed,” Beaumont said. “Playing in front of 20,000 people in a trial match at Lord’s shows how far the game has come in a short space of time. It’s incredible and something we can all be really proud of.”

There are few other active players who have lived within the historical arc represented by this Test match. Beaumont was seven years old when, in September 1998, Lord’s finally overturned two centuries of tradition and admitted its first batch of female members. She was 26 years old and at the peak of her career when, in July 2017, she produced the tournament’s best player performance by winning the World Cup final 50 years later. Following Sunday’s final T20 loss to Australia, this remains England’s latest women’s world title.

In between, she took her chances and withstood indignities, including a high-profile omission from England’s T20I squad ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 – a snub that propelled her short game to new heights, including an innings of 118 off 61 balls for Welsh Fire in the Hundred that has yet to excel in either the men’s or women’s competition.

“I’ve always loved proving people wrong!” “It’s a lot of fun,” Beaumont said, recalling the occasion of her wedding in April 2024, when her father, Kevin, caused an impromptu drinking game at one of the rowdiest tables in the back.

“I think in his speech at our wedding my father used the word ‘resilient’, in inverted commas, meaning ‘stubborn’, at least 10 times. For me, I was always like, well, if you told me ‘no’, I’d be like, ‘I’ll show you!’ And I think that’s the moment I knew I was ready to retire. This time I was left out and said, ‘Okay, cool…’, instead of showing you…”

Resilience is what England’s players as a whole will need in this remarkable week, as they lick their wounds in the place of perpetual professional heartache, while trying to prepare their loins for a very different, but equally important, slice of history.

“I’m really proud of the way the girls went in the T20 World Cup; [but] “I feel for them. Some of them haven’t gone home, or spent one night in their own beds. Then they come back here, and they play the exact opposite of cricket… where they have to settle down for long periods, get used to letting the ball go. They are showing great spirit, as they have done over the last four or five weeks,” Beaumont said.

The switch won’t be easy for either team. India had a little longer to adapt, having moved to Wormsley for two days of red-ball training, but they are also returning to the scene of bitter disappointment, after their loss to Australia at Lord’s sealed their group stage exit. But what is most important is that neither side is familiar with the format that is played so infrequently that no player can claim to be a specialist.

“We all want to be really good at things, and one test every two years puts an end to that.”

Tammy Beaumont

This includes Beaumont, whose Test debut came in the 2013 Ashes – a spell that can only be bettered among England’s men by Joe Root. However, Root has made 166 Tests to Beaumont’s 11, even if her national record 208 against Australia in 2023 is evidence of the heights she might have been capable of achieving, given even half as many chances.

“People always ask me what my favorite format is and I could never say Test cricket, although I think it would be if we had the opportunity to play enough,” she said. “It’s called a test for a reason. You’re testing your mental resolve, your physical resolve, your technique… but you always feel like you’re playing catch-up; and after two days of training for this test, you’ll never feel completely prepared.”

“I think the women’s game is late to that,” Beaumont added. “Most of us want to play Test cricket, but not in a tokenistic way. We really want to sink our teeth into it and get good at it, and that’s starting to show in the T20 format. We’re all elite athletes at the end of the day. We all want to be really good at things, and one Test every two years puts an end to that.”

In a similar vein, Beaumont expressed caution over the recently completed T20 World Cup, which featured record crowds of more than 245,000, as well as 28,887 spectators for the final alone – the highest women’s attendance at any cricket match in England.

But she added that the lack of competitive matches was a concern, although the passion was evident in all the teams, not least Scotland and Ireland, who recorded their first World Cup victories.

Overall, Beaumont admits she’s had a pretty good life during her career. Only the great Charlotte Edwards has scored more ODI runs than her final tally of 4,738, while her record of 12 hundreds in this format will only realistically be challenged by England’s other best player, Nat Sciver-Brunt.

But the beginning of the end is now fully in motion. “It was difficult,” she admitted. “Things have probably sped up in the last week or so, there’s a lot of conversations behind the scenes and people I’ve had to tell. I had to tell them to take Monday off to get here, so it’s been pretty crazy.

“I told the girls today, that was probably the hardest part. Amy Jones looked pretty shocked. I don’t know if she’s over it yet. Then she goes back to work, faces a red ball, and gets upset because there’s never enough bowlers or never enough time to bat. Once it’s all done, it’s back to work and enjoying batting for as long as possible.”

Curiously, Beaumont will be withdrawn having emulated the feat achieved by Ben Stokes in his last Test innings, having batted at every position from 1 to 11 in the order. This in turn reflects the era in which you entered. “It used to be that you would pick someone as a squad player to coach, whereas now there’s probably a group of 50 players who will be able to play for England on the world stage.”

Her proudest memories were too numerous to mention, including her iconic innings in the 2017 World Cup, as well as her double century in the Ashes. But, in her estimation, leading England to a thrilling five-run win over India at The Oval last summer was at the top of the list.

“I never thought my highlight would be scoring two goals on the road at The Oval,” she joked. “But empowering the girls and seeing how amazing they responded to it, and seeing what this group is capable of. That atmosphere is why you play the game. Obviously 2017 is definitely there, but it’s been so long ago that I can barely remember it…!”

It’s been an incredible journey for a Kent girl whose first claim to fame was being a national schools gymnastics champion… and never saw that as her future.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do that in gymnastics!” She said. “I wasn’t Simone Biles. But I think about some of the most surreal things that have happened to me. I’ve met the Dalai Lama, I’ve met Prince William, a lot of things have happened… I would never have played golf, and I probably will play a lot more now…

“Some of the most surreal things have happened during my career, all things off the field. This couldn’t have happened to a young kid from Sandwich, back in Kent. It was definitely worth it.”