Indian women’s cricket team is all set to tour Australia in September-October later this year. The official series starts on 19th September and concludes on 11th October. A total of 3 ODIs, 1 Test, and 3 T20Is are scheduled to take place.
India will play Australia XI in a 50-over contest two days before their first ODI against Australia on 17th September but there are no warm-up matches organized for the multi-format Ashes series.
Australia A team will also make a comeback this summer when they take on England A alongside the multi-format Ashes series.
England A team will arrive with the England senior team in early January next year where Australia A and Englands A will compete in an A-series alongside Australia women vs England women multi-format Ashes series. The last time Australia A played was against England itself in the year 2019 alongside the multi-format Ashes series in the UK.
The Women’s Cricket National League is all set to start on September 23. The first round of the league will be played in the cities of Sydney and Adelaide and the next three rounds will be played in the months of December, January, and February before the finals on March 6.
Both the men’s and women’s domestic 50-over competitions are structured the same way, where each team plays the other team once in the season. However, with no women’s multi-day matches, the players train from June-April just for the nine matches that they have to play in the WCNL every year.
Peter Roach, Cricket Australia’s Head of Operations, said that the expansion of WNCL is on the sheets of Cricket Australia but it was not possible to do this year because of the busiest international schedule the Australian women’s team has ever seen.
“This would have been a strange year to start (an expansion) when we’ve got so much international cricket and the challenge is to try and allow our international players to play as much of that as possible,” Roach said.
“As we continue to grow the depth in the competition, at the moment there is a fair difference when international players play and when they don’t, so we try and ensure they play at least half the games as the bare minimum. That was a challenge this year with the schedule we’ve got.”
“It’s certainly on the radar for the future to make sure our growing depth and talent is playing enough games to prepare them for international cricket … whether that means 10 games (in future) or a different option, those are things we’re looking at,” he added.
Roach also confirmed that CA is planning to hold a national camp before the India series.
Roach also said that national players like Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes will be included in the domestic league so that they get some practice for the one-off Test against England in January. Australia has only played two Test matches in the last decade and now they will play 2 in the span of 6 months.
Women’s tour matches for Australia A Team
Sep 17: Australian XI v India, Hurstville Oval (50-over)
Jan 26: Australia A v England A, Phillip Oval (T20)
Jan 28: Australia A v England A, Phillip Oval (T20)
Jan 30: Australia A v England A, Phillip Oval (T20)
Feb 5: Australia A v England A, Drummoyne Oval (50-over)
Feb 8: Australia A v England A, Karen Rolton Oval (50-over)
Feb 10: Australia A v England A, Karen Rolton Oval (50-over)
Commonwealth Bank Women’s Series v India
Sep 19: First ODI, North Sydney Oval (D/N)
Sep 22: Second ODI, Junction Oval
Sep 24: Third ODI, Junction Oval
Sep 30 – Oct 3: Test match, WACA Ground (D/N)
Oct 7: First T20, North Sydney Oval
Oct 9: Second T20, North Sydney Oval
Oct 11: Third T20, North Sydney Oval
Commonwealth Bank Women’s Ashes v England
Jan 27-30: Test match, Manuka Oval
Feb 4: First T20, North Sydney Oval
Feb 6: Second T20, North Sydney Oval
Feb 10: Third T20, Adelaide Oval
Feb 13: First ODI, Adelaide Oval
Feb 16: Second ODI, Junction Oval
Feb 19: Third ODI, Junction Oval
