New Delhi, July 10 -- LONDON - Tammy Beaumont had already decided this would be her last match before she knew what the first one would be.

The 35-year-old England batter announced her international retirement earlier this summer after 17 years and 260 appearances in an England shirt. She asked to be selected for one final Test match. What she received was an invitation to the first women's Test ever played at Lord's Cricket Ground, a four-day fixture against India beginning Friday that ranks among the most significant women's cricket matches ever staged at any venue in the sport's history.

Lord's staged its first men's Test in 1884. Women have been playing international cricket since the 1930s. The arithmetic of that gap is not flatter...