Tahlia McGrath happy with Australia’s ‘unknown quantities’ ahead of title defense at the Women’s ODI World Cup.
Tahlia McGrath confident of Australia’s “settled squad” with “so much depth” to defend the ODI title despite the unfamiliar conditions.
Despite the fact that many international cricket players already consider India to be a second home, Australia is getting ready to embrace the unknown at the forthcoming women’s ODI World Cup.
Given the variety of locations, this is a scenario that will affect every team in the competition, including India, the co-hosts to some extent. The last women’s T20Is were held in 2019 at Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium, the Holkar Stadium in Indore has never hosted women’s internationals, and the last ODIs in Visakhapatnam were in 2014.
To add to the mix is the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Australia, who will play Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the ground, has played there before in 2016, when just five of the current team was on tour. This year, the venue has held seven women’s ODIs, including those between South Africa, India, and Sri Lanka.
In reference to Colombo, where Australia played two spin-dominated ODIs earlier this year, head coach Shelley Nitschke stated last week that she had contacted the men’s setup for assistance in gathering data. The players are conscious that they will need to be flexible throughout the competition.
“We have been quite lucky, we feel like we’re travelling to India every second month almost,” vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said ahead of Australia’s three-match ODI series against India which starts on Sunday in New Chandigarh. “Spent a lot of time over here, played in these conditions a lot, but we’re playing in some parts that we’re not very familiar with.
“[We are] in New Chandigarh at the moment, never been here before, [and] lots of the World Cup venues never been to before. So it’s about learning the conditions, adapting to the conditions, being flexible and communicating really well as a group because it is a little bit foreign to us.
“No matter where you are in India, you can get thrown up very different conditions from day to day, so excited about the challenge, [we have] a little bit of experience, but a little bit of unknowns.”