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The Indian women's cricket team paid a heartfelt tribute to England greats Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont by presenting them with signed jerseys after the duo brought the curtain down on their illustrious international careers following the conclusion of the historic one-off Women's Test at Lord's on Monday.
The touching moment took place in front of the iconic Lord's honours board after India completed a commanding 270-run victory over England. England Cricket shared a video of the presentation on X, captioning it, "Wholesome moment as India present Tammy and Heather with a token of their appreciation." https://x.com/englandcricket/status/2076812075448381684 Handing over the jerseys on behalf of the Indian team, batter Jemimah Rodrigues congratulated the two stalwarts and wished them well for the future. "You know cricket is all about making memories. And we, as the Indian team, just want to leave you with a small memory on your last match for England. Congratulations and all the best for everything," Jemimah said. The Lord's Test marked the end of two remarkable England careers. Knight announced her retirement during the match, while Beaumont had confirmed before the game that it would be her final international appearance. Knight leaves the game as England Women's most-capped cricketer, having represented her country in 320 international matches since making her debut in 2010. She amassed 8,017 international runs, including six centuries, and became the first England player to score centuries in all three international formats after her maiden T20I hundred in 2020. Her nine-year tenure as England captain from 2016 to 2025 remains one of the most successful in the team's history. Knight led England in 199 matches, winning 134 of them, with the highlight coming at Lord's in 2017 when she captained the side to the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup title. Beaumont also signed off after a distinguished 17-year international career. The 35-year-old retires as England Women's leading ODI centurion with 12 hundreds and is one of only two English women to have scored international centuries across all three formats. She scored 614 runs in 12 Tests, including a memorable double century against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2023, becoming the first England woman to achieve the feat. Beaumont also amassed 4,738 runs in 140 ODIs and 1,975 runs in 109 T20Is, establishing herself as one of England's finest opening batters. The emotional farewell came after India scripted history by winning the first-ever Women's Test at Lord's by 270 runs. Yastika Bhatia etched her name into the record books by becoming the first woman to score a Test century at the iconic venue, while debutant pacer Kranti Gaud claimed a five-wicket haul in England's first innings. Smriti Mandhana contributed scores of 83 and 70 across the two innings, Deepti Sharma impressed with both bat and ball, and Richa Ghosh struck an unbeaten half-century as India set England a daunting target of 457. England were eventually bowled out for 186 on the fourth day, with Deepti claiming four wickets to seal India's seventh win in their last 11 Women's Tests. (ANI)
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