The Australian skipper Alyssa Healy is unsure of her participation in the ODI series at home against India in December this year as she is nursing a knee injury.
The veteran 34-year-old Australian wicket-keeper batter and skipper has recently had a tough time, suffering through one injury after another. Skipper Alyssa Healy’s campaign in the 9th edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, came to an abrupt end as she had to retire hurt in the run chase against Pakistan on 11th October 2024.
Healy later revealed that a ruptured plantar fascia in her foot forced her to stay on the sidelines. She subsequently went on to miss their final league game of the tournament against India and also the semi-final. Tahlia McGrath took over the leadership duties in her absence. Owing to her injury, she also missed the first couple of games for the Sydney Sixers in the ongoing landmark 10th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), as she was on her road to recovery.
Healy returned to the Sydney Sixers line-up in the 3rd game of the campaign against the Melbourne Stars, where she also kept the wickets. She was in, and out of the side as a precautionary measure for a minor knee injury which eventually aggravated. As a result, she has now been ruled out of the remainder of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL).
“We’ll know more in the next 10 days, to see how it responds to everything that we’re trying to do, and then we’ll probably make a plan for then,” shared the Australian skipper Alyssa Healy about reassessing her availability for her upcoming international commitments in the next 10 days.
Healy now faces a race against time to be match-fit and available to lead Australia in the upcoming three-match ODI series at home against India led by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur from 5th to 11th December 2024. Australia will also travel to New Zealand for another three-match bilateral ODI series from 19th to 23rd December 2024. Tahlia McGrath will take up the leadership role in the absence of the regular skipper Alyssa Healy, if she doesn’t recover in time for the series.
The whole of Australia would be sweating on her fitness and her potential availability for the upcoming all-format Women’s Ashes from January, next year.
“The reality is the Ashes is really important, and there’s obviously a Test match in there as well, so the word ‘workload management’ keeps jumping up. But we’ll just manage it week by week and see what I can and can’t do, and move from there,” Skipper Alyssa Healy spoke about prioritising the Women’s Ashes and also reflected on managing the workload in the upcoming days en route to her road to regaining full fitness.
The Australian women’s team will be involved in an all-format Ashes at home that will include a three-match ODI series, followed by a three-match T20I series, and then a one-off Test match from 12th January 2025 to 2nd February 2025.
(Quotes sourced from cricket.com.au)
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