IND-W vs AUS-W: Australia shakes off Test loss in opposition to India to shift concentrate on massive image

Christmas in India for the Australian cricket staff may need misplaced a few of its sweetness after the massive loss to the host within the one-off Test. However, if there’s one factor (among the many many) the Aussies do properly, it’s to compartmentalise. Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association put collectively a lunch for the staff exterior their resort and assistant coach Dan Marsh procured just a few Christmas-themed costumes for the facet. Photographs emerged of a staff spending time collectively, discovering consolation in one another’s firm. Darcie Brown, dressed as Grinch, was an instantaneous hit. 

“For Christmas, we had a great team coffee in the morning and shared some presents and some laughs,” Beth Mooney revealed on Thursday. 

She additionally obtained a textual content from a sure Meg Lanning, wishing her for the vacations and checking in on her and the staff. But that’s how far the dialog went. 

“Meg sent me a message for Christmas and I think she’s enjoying some down time. It was nice to hear from her. I obviously miss having her around the group. But she’s done her time and I think she’s pretty happy with where she’s left things for this group,” Mooney mentioned.

Clean slate

Think of these LED writing pads, the place you click on a button and the floor is cleaned. The Aussies had been going for the same reset. 

“The last few days have been good to switch off and get away from cricket but we’re geared up towards training and the ODIs,” she added.

Test cricket for the ladies’s sport stays largely with out context courtesy the dearth of a carrot on the finish of the stick. There isn’t any championship or finish objective, in truth this sport didn’t even have the multiformat factors such a sequence would often have. So it was in the most effective curiosity of the staff to discover a strategy to change gears into ODI mode, a format they’ve a World Cup arising in quickly. 

This massive image isn’t misplaced on the Aussies. The T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2024 and the ODI World Cup in India in 2025 comes with two main challenges – enjoying on spin-friendly tracks is one in every of them. Thirteen Aussie wickets within the Test fell to spin within the Test on the Wankhede Stadium. 

“We’ve got a different looking side compared to a couple of years ago. We want to take as much out of this series and from our Bangladesh tour in April, and really learn as much as we can about the conditions,” Mooney admitted. 

“We’ve taken a little bit of insight from the Australian men’s team that was here recently for the ODI World Cup, which has been really helpful. For us, it’s just about adapting as quickly as we can. The death bowling and batting are going to be really important and we’ll have to make sure we nail them. Hopefully, we can fine-tune a few things in this series and in the next six months before the T20 World Cup and the ODI one the following year,” she added. 

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Think tank settling in

The second problem dealing with Australia is the freshness of its command centre. The Matthew Mott-Meg Lanning period noticed immense success come this facet’s means. Lanning herself was answerable for 5 ICC trophies as captain throughout the 2 white ball codecs. These will not be straightforward footwear to fill for Alyssa Healy, whose first task as full-time skipper was the Test in Mumbai. 

Against India, just a few bowling selections by the management group – Healy and her vice captain Tahlia McGrath – had been debatable. Giving Ashleigh Gardner 41 overs when the likes of Alana King and Jess Jonassen had been there was one in every of them. Jonassen bowled simply 20 overs in the complete sport. 

Healy was a busy physique throughout apply on the eve of the primary ODI. She spent lengthy hours batting, dealing with a number of members of the Aussie squad after which she picked up her protecting gloves for a session. Towards the tip, she sat down on the chairs by the nets, seemingly misplaced in thought, maybe feeling the load of the world on her shoulders as she tries to work on her captaincy resume as properly. 

“I think we’re all taking it one series at a time,” Mooney defined on the pre-match press convention earlier than the staff headed out to coach. “Midge (Healy) has done an outstanding job in the interim role and taken over the full-time captaincy really impressively. She’ll learn as she goes as we all will. It’s important that between now and next year and the year after, we all help each other out as much as possible. This team has a lot of leadership personalities in there and a lot of senior players. It’s all about helping each other and taking some of the pressure off her. And we’re doing it with Midge as she’s learning the ropes of the role,” she added. 

Australia girls’s staff through the practise session.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI/ The Hindu

A troublesome ask and opponent

While circumstances posed a problem to the Aussies through the one-off Test, the bunch ought to discover themselves higher acclimatised by now. Beyond their inside challenges lies a threatening opponent who finds itself on an upswing of momentum and outcomes.

“India are a huge threat in white-ball cricket, they’ve had a lot of success over the last couple of years and have some world class players in their lineup. That’s a great challenge for this Australia team, to come out firing and hopefully nullify that as early as possible,” Mooney mentioned. 

Despite scanty attendance for the video games, a memorable a part of the Test, even for the Aussies, was followers who had turned up chanting in assist of the Indians. Even the Australians obtained just a few songs devoted to them through the course of the Test and likewise met a few of these supporters on the ultimate day of the Test. 

“We obviously know that they’re going to play on the crowd a little bit as well, and we get right up and about when there’s a decent crowd too. So, looking forward to the contest and hopefully we can keep them quiet as early as possible. I think that will be a really big factor in the series as a whole,” she added. 

With a whiteboard populated with issues to get proper, Australia has its activity lower out because it heads into the white ball leg of the tour. With an eye fixed on the continental occasions, attention-grabbing instances lie forward for a champion facet in search of to search out success in transition.