The Australian women’s team are on their India tour for their 5-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series. After a dominating win against India in 1st T20I, they fell short by a margin in the 2nd T20I when the match went to Super Over at the DY Patil Cricket Stadium. The series is now level 1-1 with 3 more matches to go.
Jess Jonassen is understood to have strained an injury to her right hamstring while fielding during Australia’s outing in the series opener. The injury proved to be of such degree that it ruled Jess Jonassen out of the series and she’s returned home to Australia. For the ongoing 5-match T20I series, Jess Jonassen has been replaced by Amanda-Jade Wellington in the squad of 15 come the 3rd T20I.
Amanda-Jade Wellington has got the deserving call-up, surely not in the fashion she would have wished, but in sport, this is the likeliest of ways where someone’s miss is someone’s gain, and it’s another welcoming opportunity for her to force her selection into every future team and especially the Australian squad that she misses out due to the star-studded line ups.
Amanda-Jade Wellington in the first place missed out on the squad as Australia opted to carry a pace-centered bowling unit as the aim was to assess their options ahead of the upcoming, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup that’ll be played early next in South Africa and which also sees Australia as defending champions.
Among spinners, Alana King received the ticket to India ahead of Amanda-Jade Wellington who eventually made it to India in time with 3 games still to be played in the series and the same is by no means good news for India.
The 25-year-old while has not played a T20I game for Australia since the side’s last tour of India in 2018, she’s been around the squad for a while now and played in a couple of One-Day Internationals (ODIs) during the World Cup fixtures early this year apart from being just a member of the touring party for the Commonwealth Games squad in August.
Amanda’s selection in the first place when wasn’t made, and questions were raised as the 25-year-old leg spinner had yet another stunning run in the Women’s Big Bash League (W-BBL) which saw her bag 23 wickets off 15 innings at an average of 16.34, a strike rate of 14.3 and an economy rate of 6.85. Amanda finished as the 3rd highest on the wicket-takers list and was the 2nd highest among spinners, as Jess Jonassen led the list having picked up 25 wickets off 16 innings.
Name: Amanda-Jade Wellington
Job: Creating Records for Best Bowling Figures in WBBL#CricketTwitter #WBBL pic.twitter.com/FyPFDNY3BJ— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 24, 2022
Amanda-Jade Wellington’s this summer’s W-BBL has got to her re-registering her previous best figures of 5/8 and for a change, did so this time around a ball early having closed out her spell in 3.5 overs. Amanda is living her dream run and the only possible obstacle in her way from finding a place in the 3rd T20I is Heather Graham.
Fellow Australian in this summer’s W-BBL off 12 innings scored 258 runs at an average of 28.66, a strike rate of 122.27, and registered the highest score of 50 and with the ball wasn’t at her best but picked up 13 wickets off 11 innings at an economy rate of 8 and registered the best figures of 3/15. Australia if opt to strengthen their batting, Heather Graham could emerge as the side’s no.1 pick, but otherwise, it’s simply got to be no one other than, Amanda-Jade Wellington.
