Satisfied Australia captain Alyssa Healy believes her side”s unbeaten run during their tour of Bangladesh will hold them in good stead when they return to the Asian country later this year for the ICC Women”s T20 World Cup 2024.
Australia got some early practice in for this year”s 20-over showcase with six white-ball contests against Bangladesh and the reigning T20 World Cup champions looked in fine touch as they swept both the ODI and T20I series 3-0 in emphatic style.
Healy was impressed by how quickly Australia got used to the conditions on offer in Bangladesh and thinks it will prove fruitful as her side chases a fourth consecutive T20 World Cup crown in the country later this year.
“I think we”re adapting really well, which is what we speak about a lot, whether it”s with bat or ball, we want to adapt to conditions really quickly,” Healy said.
“Everyone in the squad is taking something home that they can work on for when we come back here in September, so it”s been hugely worthwhile for us.
“The results went our way but from a big picture perspective, and what we”re building towards in September, October, I think we got everything we possibly could out of this series.”
Australia got the chance to provide a group of their players with a range of different opportunities during the Bangladesh tour, with Healy relinquishing her spot as opener to Grace Harris in one of the T20I contests and all-rounder Georgia Wareham surprisingly coming into bat at No.3 during the same match.
The six-time Women”s T20 World Cup winners will also be buoyed by the impressive returns from injury by spinner Sophie Molineux and pacer Tayla Vlaeminck during the tour, which will provide selectors with plenty to ponder ahead of their return to Bangladesh in September.
“We”ve had different players of the match and different players of the series across the two series, so that”s been really pleasing as well,” Healy said.
“Everybody”s standing up and when they need to, and grabbing opportunities which is cool.
“It”s obviously great to have someone like Tay (Tayla) back, she”s a real point of difference within world cricket, and Soph Molineux”s consistency is outstanding so they”re both real attributes to our side.”
Australia”s next test on their busy international schedule comes against trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand on home soil in the middle of September and Healy thinks a good break prior to those three matches and before the start of the T20 World Cup will give her side the best chance of hoisting the trophy in Bangladesh.
“We”ve got a very tired group, it”s the end of our summer and we”ve played a lot of cricket over the last few months,” Healy said.
“The beauty of our schedule, we”ve got four months at home to get ourselves fit and firing and ready and we”ll hopefully be fresh heading into that New Zealand series and the (T20) World Cup.”
