Australia looks forward to fixing the missing pieces of the puzzle in their bid to find a perfect combination ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The Australian women’s team is the 6-time ICC Women’s T20 World Cup defending champions. They seem to have mastered their template of handling the pressure and coming out on top in ICC events. The build-up for one of the major ICC events of the year, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh has begun.
The newly appointed skipper Alyssa Healy will be keen to build on the legacy left behind by the former Australian captain Meg Lanning. With the upcoming edition of the T20I World Cup getting closer and closer, the Alyssa Healy-led side would be keen to finalize their combination define the roles of particular players, and play as a settled unit going into an ICC event. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh in September-October later this year.
The conditions on offer in Bangladesh usually tend to favour the spinners which also suggests that the team with the best resources in the spin department could go a long way in their bid for the glory. As far as the Australian spin department is concerned, the star all-rounders Ashleigh Gardner and Georgia Wareham remain the two frontline spinners, and Jess Jonassen is the third spinner. The leg-spinner Alana King failed to make the cut in the T20I setup.
Apart from this quartet of spinners, another left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Sophie Molineux has been out of action courtesy of her ACL injury and will return to competitive cricket when she leads the Governor General’s XI against South Africa and could as well find her way back into the scheme of things for Australia as far as the T20I setup is concerned. Apart from her exploits with the ball, she also has the ability to contribute with the bat lower down the order. “I’ve said a few times, we value those three skillsets really highly and if you can do all three that certainly gives you a leg up selection and that’s where Georgia and Ash have got the nod at the moment.” The National selector, Shawn Flegler speaks about valuing all-round skill as one of the key parameters of the selection process.
The Australian women’s team will host South Africa for an all-format series which includes a three-match T20I series followed by a three-match ODI series and then a one-off Test Match. The series will get underway on 27th January 2024 and conclude on 15th February 2024. They will then visit Bangladesh after the conclusion of the 2nd edition of the Women’s Premier League for their maiden bilateral series which includes both white-ball formats ODIs and the T20Is.
“We’ve got a couple of venues in Bangladesh that the World Cup will be played at so that will be part of the investigating during the tour, about how wickets are going to play.” Shawn Flegler, the national selector speaks about the white-ball series against Bangladesh just ahead of the World Cup being an ideal dress rehearsal for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup later in the year.
(Quotes sourced from Espn Cricinfo).