The world-beating Australian Women’s Cricket Team will begin their maiden quest at the Commonwealth Games with their sights firmly set on winning gold.
Sitting atop the ICC Women’s T20 Team rankings, Australia are reigning T20 World Cup champions after consecutive trophy wins in 2018 and in 2020 and have landed in Birmingham in the box seat to add to their extensive medal collection.
The Games represent the start of a new era for Australia’s women, with freshly instated head coach Shelley Nitschke at the helm of a new-look coaching panel that also includes assistants Jude Coleman and Dan Marsh.
The playing stocks, however, will look very familiar to Australian fans who’ve followed the remarkable success of the team over the last twelve months.
Australia, who will open the Games with a blockbuster clash with India on Friday, are famous for their depth of talent and will be bolstered by a cast of players who thrive in the shortest format of the game.
Spin sensation Alana King lands in Birmingham brimming with confidence after a string of outstanding performances in Northern Ireland where Australia were playing a Tri-Series with Ireland and Pakistan to acclimatise to UK conditions.
Leg-spinner King was named Player of the Series after eight wickets in four matches, highlighted by her 3-8 against Pakistan.
Allrounder Tahlia McGrath will be looking to continue her meteoric rise into one of Australia’s biggest T20 weapons.
McGrath, who was dismissed for the first time ever in T20I cricket in Northern Ireland, currently averages 247 with the bat and has been named Player of the Match in every single T20 she’s batted in.
Australian captain Meg Lanning similarly appears in good touch, with scores of 39 not out and 70 in Northern Ireland.
Lanning will be joined at the top of Australia’s famed batting order by the dynamic opening combination of No.1 T20I batter in the world Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy.
Getting amongst it in Birmingham! @CommGamesAUS #BoldInGold pic.twitter.com/X9IxHR2V5u
— Australian Women’s Cricket Team 🏏 (@AusWomenCricket) July 25, 2022
Also Australia’s livewire behind the stumps, Healy is currently sitting on 99 wicketkeeping dismissals. One more would see her become the first keeper – female or male – to register 100 dismissals in T20 International cricket.
Hard-hitting allrounder Ashleigh Gardner and ultra-consistent vice-captain Rachael Haynes will provide a combination of firepower and stability through Australia’s middle order.
Darcie Brown, at just 19 years old is one of the fastest bowlers in the world and will spearhead Australia’s attack alongside the swing of Megan Schutt who recently became just the second Australian bowler to tick past 100 T20 International wickets.
Australia will face their sternest contest in the pool stage against the rapidly improving Indian team, who come armed with global T20 superstars Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and teenage batting prodigy Shafali Verma.
Joining Australia and India in Group A are Pakistan, who Australia played against in two rain-affected contests in Northern Ireland, as well as Barbados who are the representative team for the West Indies.
