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MUMBAI: Soon after her side went down by eight wickets on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium to suffer it’s first-ever defeat at the hands of India in a women’s Test, Australian captain Alyssa Healy showered praise on the hosts’ “relentless bowling,” which, she felt made the difference between the sides in the on-off Test.
“Their relentlessness with the ball stood out to me.They have grown up playing in these conditions. I think their batting was a lot different to us, but they are more comfortable playing shots we haven’t grown up playing. We have played on a lot of different wickets back home in Australia,” Healy complimented.
Leading Australia for the first time as a full-time captain, Healy felt India’s spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, which took 11 wickets between them, choked Australia’s normally free-scoring batters for runs, while seamer Pooja Vastrakar, who took four for 53 in the first innings, dismantled her team’s top-order with the new ball on Day One.
“Their three spinners worked really, really well together and made it hard for us. At times it felt like we weren’t scoring or the game was stagnating a little bit and we couldn’t really throw a punch and get the scoring going again. That probably stood out for me and Vastrakar did a lot of damage with the new pill. That stood out to me,” said the star ‘keeper-batter.
Hailing the Indian women’s team, Healy said, “They’ve always been a good team, and now they have got the confidence that they can match it with the best teams.”
Day Three of Test saw a tense moment between Healy and her Indian counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur after the latter appealed for obstructing the field dismissal against the Aussie skipper, who was fending off a throw by Harman, but ended up deflecting it for a four. After the umpires rejected the appeal, Healy was soon out lbw sweeping to the Indian captain, who gave her a long stare. Was that a new chapter in their rivalry?
“I don’t necessarily think there is a rivalry; it is just two passionate cricketers going at it. She is a passionate cricketer, and so am I,” stressed Healy.
She advocated for including more than just one women’s Test in future tour programmes between India and Australia, something which would allow a visiting team to stage a comeback after a Test defeat. “That’s (more India-Australia women’s Tests) up to the BCCI and CA (Cricket Australia) to decide whether that is on the cards or not. Standing there at the press conference and when Anjum (Chopra) asked me a question, I said yes, imagine playing two more of these. That would be an unbelievable experience for our group and probably a true test of both side’s abilities. In a one-off Test India playing in their home conditions, you’d expect them to be heavy favourites,” Healy said.
However, she recognizes that fitting more Tests won’t be easy in the women’s calendar, which is full of white-bal contests and World Cups.
“We’d love to see more and more and it would create a real contest in three games. The nature of the female game at the moment is very white-ball dominant and trying to fit it all in into the calendar and fit all the white ball games at the moment seems to take precedence,” Healy said
Asked if this was a blip for a side which has swept everything in the women’s team, Healy asserted, “I mean probably not even a blip. I think it’s (Test cricket is) a format where we’re not overly familiar with conditions (India) that we’re not familiar with. So, I see more positives out of this than any sort of negativity. And I think there is always a lot of expectation and external noise about our team and how we’re performing. They are so used to us to seeing us winning that I think at times they forget that we’ve actually seen quite a lot of change over the last 12 to 18 months,” Healy said.
“Their relentlessness with the ball stood out to me.They have grown up playing in these conditions. I think their batting was a lot different to us, but they are more comfortable playing shots we haven’t grown up playing. We have played on a lot of different wickets back home in Australia,” Healy complimented.
Leading Australia for the first time as a full-time captain, Healy felt India’s spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad, which took 11 wickets between them, choked Australia’s normally free-scoring batters for runs, while seamer Pooja Vastrakar, who took four for 53 in the first innings, dismantled her team’s top-order with the new ball on Day One.
“Their three spinners worked really, really well together and made it hard for us. At times it felt like we weren’t scoring or the game was stagnating a little bit and we couldn’t really throw a punch and get the scoring going again. That probably stood out for me and Vastrakar did a lot of damage with the new pill. That stood out to me,” said the star ‘keeper-batter.
Hailing the Indian women’s team, Healy said, “They’ve always been a good team, and now they have got the confidence that they can match it with the best teams.”
Day Three of Test saw a tense moment between Healy and her Indian counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur after the latter appealed for obstructing the field dismissal against the Aussie skipper, who was fending off a throw by Harman, but ended up deflecting it for a four. After the umpires rejected the appeal, Healy was soon out lbw sweeping to the Indian captain, who gave her a long stare. Was that a new chapter in their rivalry?
“I don’t necessarily think there is a rivalry; it is just two passionate cricketers going at it. She is a passionate cricketer, and so am I,” stressed Healy.
She advocated for including more than just one women’s Test in future tour programmes between India and Australia, something which would allow a visiting team to stage a comeback after a Test defeat. “That’s (more India-Australia women’s Tests) up to the BCCI and CA (Cricket Australia) to decide whether that is on the cards or not. Standing there at the press conference and when Anjum (Chopra) asked me a question, I said yes, imagine playing two more of these. That would be an unbelievable experience for our group and probably a true test of both side’s abilities. In a one-off Test India playing in their home conditions, you’d expect them to be heavy favourites,” Healy said.
However, she recognizes that fitting more Tests won’t be easy in the women’s calendar, which is full of white-bal contests and World Cups.
“We’d love to see more and more and it would create a real contest in three games. The nature of the female game at the moment is very white-ball dominant and trying to fit it all in into the calendar and fit all the white ball games at the moment seems to take precedence,” Healy said
Asked if this was a blip for a side which has swept everything in the women’s team, Healy asserted, “I mean probably not even a blip. I think it’s (Test cricket is) a format where we’re not overly familiar with conditions (India) that we’re not familiar with. So, I see more positives out of this than any sort of negativity. And I think there is always a lot of expectation and external noise about our team and how we’re performing. They are so used to us to seeing us winning that I think at times they forget that we’ve actually seen quite a lot of change over the last 12 to 18 months,” Healy said.
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