Australia and India are set to meet in their first Test on Indian soil in almost 40 years – so how do Alyssa Healy and Harmanpreet Kaur's sides stack up?
Head to head: How rivals match up for rare Test showdown
The openers
Australia will have the same opening combination from their previous Test at Trent Bridge in June, with Beth Mooney partnering fellow left-hander Phoebe Litchfield.
The pair put on stands of 35 and 99 in that Test against England, in what was their first red-ball game opening the batting together. Litchfield hit 23 and 46 on debut, while Mooney struck 33 and 85.
Mooney also batted at the top of the order in Australia's last Test against India, a day-nighter on the Gold Coast in October 2021, scoring four and 11.
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have opened the batting together in India's last three Tests, carrying on the roles they also perform in both T20Is and ODIs.
Against England last week, Mandhana looked the more comfortable of the pair but was unable to convert her starts, dismissed for 17 and 26, while Verma hit 19 and 33.
Mandhana struck a superb 127 against Australia in the 2021 Test, while Verma scored a third-innings half-century.
The middle order
Ellyse Perry is a woman built for Test cricket and the veteran allrounder, who has a Test double ton to her name, will be desperate to make an impact in her first red-ball match on Indian soil. She is joined by Tahlia McGrath, Alyssa Healy, Annabel Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardner in an enviable middle-order.
McGrath has hit two fifties in six Test innings including a high score of 61, while Healy hit a game-changing half-century in Australia's most recent Test against England.
Sutherland batted at No.8 in that Ashes Test but is set to be promoted up the order after scoring a century at Trent Bridge. Gardner has two fifties from her seven Test innings.
For the hosts, it remains to be seen who will walk out at No.3 after Shubha Satheesh, who hit 69 on debut against England last week, suffered a reported fractured finger during the match and did not train this week.
Options to replace her in the XI include uncapped pair Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh.
Jemimah Rodrigues made a serious impression on debut against England, scoring 68 and 27 at No.4, while captain Harmanpreet Kaur also looked in fine touch at No.5 against England.
Kaur was unlucky to be run out on 49 during the first innings of that game, caught short after her bat stuck in the crease, while she declared when she was unbeaten on 44 in their second dig.
The remainder of the middle-order – Yastika Bhatia and Deepti Sharma – also made significant contributions in the match against England, scoring 66 and 67 respectively.
The spinners
Off-spinners Gardner and Deepti Sharma are two names that were thrown up again and again in the lead-up to this Test, and rightfully so.
Sharma was the destroyer against England, taking nine wickets for the match including a remarkable 5-7 in England's first innings, turning the ball back into England's entirely right-handed line-up.
The off-spinner will be the major threat to Australia, backed up by left-armer Rajashwari Gayakwad and another offie in Sneh Rana.
Gardner claimed the best-ever Test figures by an Australian woman against England in June, taking 12 wickets at Trent Bridge.
She will hope to make the same impact with her finger spin as Sharma did at DY Patil Stadium, and could be one of up to four spinners in the Australian XI.
Leg-spinner Alana King seems an almost certain starter after being preferred to Wareham for the Ashes Test, while left-arm orthodox spinner Jess Jonassen has played five Tests, taking six wickets. Leggie Wareham's sole Test came against India on the Gold Coast in 2021, where she took the wicket of Verma in the rain-affected draw.
The fast bowlers
Darcie Brown will be Australia's key pace weapon with her ability to swing the new ball both ways at rapid speeds, and potentially even extract reverse swing with the aging ball.
Australia have yet to confirm their final XI but if they do include a second specialist speedster, uncapped Lauren Cheatle impressed with the new nut during the warm-up game on Sunday, taking four wickets, and brings a major point of difference as a left-armer. Kim Garth is another option – she made her Test debut in June and collected one wicket in that match.
Our new vice-captain Tahlia McGrath shares how she got the good news and how she's approaching the new gig 🫡#ScoopPodcast | #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/qi6UrFupXB
— Australian Women's Cricket Team 🏏 (@AusWomenCricket) December 20, 2023
For India, Renuka Thakur was a tricky prospect with the new ball against England, picking up a wicket in each innings, while Pooja Vastrakar was the destroyer in England's second innings, dismissing Sophia Dunkley and Heather Knight and producing an unplayable delivery to bowl Natalie Sciver-Brunt for a golden duck.
The allrounders
Australia's middle-order essentially doubles as their list of all-round options: pace bowlers McGrath, Sutherland and Perry will all make contributions with the ball, while Gardner, as noted above, will be a key strike weapon with her off-spin.
That list of allrounders will swell to five, and arguably even six if Jess Jonassen and Georgia Wareham are included in the playing XI. Jonassen has a Test 99 to her name, while Wareham's batting has gone from strength to strength in white-ball cricket.
This wealth of all-round talent makes Australia a very balanced line-up, giving Healy no shortage of options to call upon with the ball.
Sharma is the key allrounder in India's line-up and has only been dismissed for fewer than 50 runs once in six Test innings. She hit 66 against Australia on the Gold Coast in 2021.
The captains
Alyssa Healy and Harmanpreet Kaur both go into this Test having won their previous match in the format, and it is just the second time in the history of women's Tests that this has happened.
Both have also only led their countries once in a Test match.
Healy successfully skippered Australia to victory over England in Nottingham in June and was inspirational, batting and keeping wicket through the pain of two broken fingers throughout. This will be Healy's seventh Test overall, so she has a significant amount of experience in relative terms, given the scarcity of women's Test matches.
It will also be Healy's full-time captaincy debut after she was officially installed as national leader with the retirement of Meg Lanning. Her deputy, Tahlia McGrath, was also vice-captain during the Ashes Test match.
Kaur's Test captaincy debut came just last week against England and the India veteran impressed with her tactics and field placements during that lopsided affair. She has played just four Tests across her lengthy career but is a vastly experienced leader, having been captain of her country in T20Is for more than five years, leading them on more than 100 occasions in the format.
Australia's multi-format tour of India
December 21-24: Test match, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
December 28: First ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
December 30: Second ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
January 2: Third ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
January 5: First T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai
January 7: Second T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai
January 9: Third T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai
Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle (Test only), Heather Graham, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20s only), Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Shubha Satheesh, Harleen Deol, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar