Ace batter Beth Mooney on Wednesday revealed that Australia Women have picked the brains of their 2023 ODI World Cup-winning men counterparts, acquiring ‘really helpful insights’ in terms of playing one-dayers in India. (Streaming | Cricket News)
Australia are gearing up for a three-match series against India starting in Mumbai on Thursday.
While they enjoyed a dominant ODI record against India — 40 wins in 50 matches — Australia Women do not want to leave any stone unturned when it comes to their preparations.
“We have taken a little bit of insight from the Australian men's team that were over here recently playing the ODI World Cup and getting some insights from them has been really helpful,” Mooney told the media here before Australia’s training session at the Wankhede Stadium.
Advertisement
“It is just about adapting as quickly as we can. The death bowling and batting is going to be really important, making sure we nail that.”
“Hopefully, we can fine-tune a few things in this series and in the next six months before that T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and then obviously the ODI World Cup the following year,” Mooney added.
Mooney acknowledged India thrive on crowd support at home and added that seven-time World Cup winners Australia will be keen on making them go ‘quiet early on’ in the series.
Advertisement
“We know India are a huge threat in white-ball cricket. They have had a lot of success over the last couple of years and got some world-class players in their line-up. So is a great challenge for this Australian team to come out firing and nullify that as early as possible in this white-ball series,” Mooney said.
“Hopefully, we can keep them (crowd) quiet as early as possible in the ODI — that will be a really big factor in the series as a whole but first and foremost in the first game,” Mooney added.
It is not usual for the Australian Women's team to play away from home during Christmas time, as they began the India tour with an eight-wicket thrashing in the one-off Test.
Mooney seconded her captain Alyssa Healy that there could have been another Test on this tour.
“We took a lot out of that Test match. It is a real shame we did not get to play another one given all that we learned from it,” she said.
“The last two days have been great to switch off and get away from cricket but we are ready to go tonight and have a good training into the first ODI tomorrow (Thursday),” Mooney added.
With the next T20 World Cup in Bangladesh slated for 2024 and the next 50-over World Cup scheduled in 2025 in India, Mooney said the series will help attain as much learning as possible.
Advertisement
“It is probably just trying to get as much learning as possible. We have got a different-looking side now compared to a couple of years ago and certainly when the 2013 ODI World Cup was over here in India,” she said.
“We want to take as much out of this series and obviously we go to Bangladesh in April as well so we want to take (in) as much as we can out of those series and really learn about the conditions,” she added.
