Australia captain Alyssa Healy has been ruled out of the fifth and final T20I against India, to be held at Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday (December 20), after suffering a calf strain in Saturday’s series-clinching seven-run win. Tahlia McGrath, the vice-captain, said in the pre-match press conference that she will lead Australia in the final match of the series. She had taken over as captain of Australia during their defence of 173.
Alyssa, who took over as Australia captain for the tour of India in the absence of Meg Lanning, strained her calf while batting in the sixth over of the fourth T20I. She limped from the ground after being retired hurt and took no further part in the match. Tahlia had captained the Adelaide Strikers to their maiden Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) title in November and has also captained her state team South Australia in a domestic one-day cricket tournament. She will now become the eighth player to captain Australia women’s T20I side.
The @AusWomenCricket will be without skipper Alyssa Healy tonight for the final T20 of their India tour, but stand-in skipper Tahlia McGrath says the squad has 'got plenty of options' to cover her #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/VJLKQoeTLZ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 20, 2022
“I’m new to leadership in this team and have been learning a lot on the fly and it probably worked in my favour that I didn’t have long to think about it, I was strangely calm out there, I had a lot of support. (When Richa Ghosh was flying) I had to try and stay calm and keep the team calm.
“I’ve come off the back of captaining strikers for six weeks where it’s high pressure, the best players in the world are there and that’s what it felt like, I was captaining the strikers with a few extra players,” Tahlia McGrath said.
In absence of Alyssa, her opening partner Beth Mooney will be on keeping duties for Tuesday’s match, having done the same during the second innings of Saturday’s game. Beth has kept wickets for Perth Scorchers in WBBL and for Western Australia in domestic cricket.
Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Date & Time: December 20, 7pm IST onwards
Live Streaming and TV details: Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar website and app.
Wicketkeepers: Richa Ghosh
Batters: Shikhar Smriti Mandhana, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues
All-rounders: Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma
Bowlers: Darcie Brown, Alana King, Devika Vaidya
Captain: Ellyse Perry
Vice-captain: Harmanpreet Kaur
India Women: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya, Radha Yadav, Anjali Sarvani, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur Singh
Australia Women: Grace Harris, Beth Mooney (wk), Tahlia McGrath (C), Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Brown, Annabel Sutherland, Heather Graham, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt
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