Australia’s leg-spinner Alana King shared her insights following Australia’s dominant 10-wicket win against Bangladesh at the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025. King, who was instrumental in exploiting the turn and bounce on offer, spoke about her bowling plans, the team’s fielding efforts, and the incredible form of skipper Alyssa Healy.
When asked about the difference in the pitch behavior between both innings, King noted that her approach was less about comparing and more about focusing on execution.
“Well, I wasn’t out there to bat, so I’m not too sure, but I think for me, I’m not trying to look too much at any other spinners. I’m just trying to bowl my best ball and try to actually extract as much as I can out of the wickets and we know sometimes they’re not going to offer as much but to have some turn and bounce, I was really pleased to see, and I think most of our spinners are all of our spinners actually got the same bit of purchase as well.”
During her spell, King was seen varying her pace and tempting the Bangladesh batters with flight. She explained the strategy behind that approach, “I think naturally, you want to change up the pace that you bowl and obviously as I spoke before, with a bit of spin and bounce in this wicket, I was just trying to extract as much as I can with my best ball and probably going up-and-down the gears of the pace.
“We know that Bangladesh are quite good against spin – they play quite square of the wicket – so also just challenging them on the front foot is what I was trying to extract and having some batters in their eyeline to see if they’re going to play a different shot.”
King highlighted the importance of simplicity in her plans and maintaining discipline as a bowling unit. She said, “I kept my plan pretty simple, and I didn’t want to get too bored. We spoke about that as a bowling unit – we wanted to be really disciplined in the length that we were trying to bowl and force them to play a different shot that they’re not comfortable with.
“We know they’re good square off the wicket, so how can we best challenge them hitting down the ground and bring our catches into play? It was just changing plans on the fly. I probably didn’t expect it to get that much spin, but once you do, it’s just adjusting your plans ever so slightly but not doing what you do well.”
The match also saw a few catches go down in the field, something King addressed with maturity and perspective. “Yeah, I think they were all probably tough catches. I don’t think there’s an easy catch and no doubt we’ll definitely review that and have a look at that. We pride ourselves on our fielding and something that we want to be putting on display. With those high balls and us probably being a bit aggressive in the field, we wanted to get the players to hit over us.
“So, to have attacking options in players diving for the ball – we love to see that. It creates great energy amongst the group and a positive mindset as well. No doubt, we’d love every catch to stick, but unfortunately, the nature of cricket doesn’t allow that too often. We’ll reflect and move on to our next game. We’ve got two pretty big games coming up against England and South Africa, so we know every chance that goes up, we’ll need to grab as much as we can. But I’d say a lot of those catches were quite tough – no doubt we won’t shy away from that.”
King also had glowing praise for Alyssa Healy, who followed up her hundred against India with another against Bangladesh. She said, “Just incredible to see what she’s done. To first of all do it against India was massive, and she was pretty bloody determined to do so. But then to not let the foot off the throat and do it again tonight just shows where her mindsets at.
“She’s hitting the ball beautifully, and to have Phoebe down the other end in tandem hitting the ball as clean as I’ve seen her — and to chase down a pretty big total none down — I think that’s something that’s going to boost confidence in our whole lineup. Pretty hit back-to-back hundreds, and also great to see Sums amongst the runs as well. I know she’s pretty hard on herself, but tonight’s going to do her a world of good. No doubt we’ve got some pretty happy campers in our team at the moment.”
Finally, when asked about the mid-innings team talk and how the spinners’ observations were shared with the batters, King highlighted the team’s collaborative mindset.
“I think we, as a unit, just spoke about trying to put on a big partnership to get ourselves into the game and give ourselves a chance. I think the difference between our spinners and the Bangladesh spinners is maybe they just bowled a bit slower, so they actually might extract a little bit more spin out of what we could. So, it’s about being really patient and choosing your options well, and Phoebe and Midge did that incredibly well.
“They showcased that once you get yourself in, it was going to be hard stopping them. Credit to them – they took all the information on board that we gave at the halfway mark and played an incredible innings to set the whole game up for us. To chase a total like that with none down, as I said before, it’s going to give a whole lot of confidence to the whole team and our batting lineup.”
With another comprehensive win under their belt and the spin department firing, Alana King’s controlled spell and leadership with the ball reinforced Australia’s dominance as the tournament enters its crucial stages.
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