Enid Bakewell will ring the bell to signal five minutes before the start of play on the opening day of the England v India LV= Insurance Test Match at Lord’s.

Regarded as one of England’s great cricketers, and one of the most recognisable names in the women’s game, Bakewell played 12 Tests for England, amassing 1,078 runs in the process and taking 50 wickets. Her batting average of 59.88 is the highest by an English woman in Tests, and the highest by any woman playing 12 Tests or more.

In her glittering career, which spanned 11 years, Nottinghamshire-born Bakewell’s scored four centuries and seven half-centuries, including 113 on her debut against Australia in Adelaide in 1968.

She also played 23 One-Day Internationals for her country, scoring 500 runs and taking 25 wickets with her slow left-arm.

Bakewell played in the first ever women’s ODI at Lord’s in 1976, hitting 50 in an eight-wicket win over Australia. The match is featured as one of the Ground’s 100 Greatest Milestones on the Lord’s Father Time wall.

In 2012, she became only the third female cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame and in 2014, Wisden selected her as one of the five greatest female players of all time. She was awarded Honorary Life Membership of MCC in 2000.

The ringing of the five-minute bell at a Lord’s Test by an international cricketer, administrator or well-known enthusiast of the sport is a recent tradition introduced in 2007.

The bell is rung to signify the imminent start of play, and it has become a great honour to be invited to ring it on the morning of a Test match.