Australia named a powerhouse squad Tuesday to defend their women’s Twenty20 World Cup title, spearheaded by Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and a fit-again Alyssa Healy.
The five-time champions are heavy favourites for the tournament in South Africa next month with their ranks boosted further by the return of leg-spinner Georgia Wareham after a long injury-related layoff.
Wicketkeeper Healy has been struggling with calf problem suffered in December in India, but was also named in the 15-women squad and is expected to play
Australia crushed India by 85 runs in front of more than 86,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to win the T20 World Cup in 2020.
Lanning’s lead
Lanning once again leads the side after ending an indefinite months-long break late last month, allaying fears that she had played her last international.
The record-breaking 30-year-old announced she was stepping away from the game in August, to “focus on myself” after leading Australia to a hectic string of successes.
“It’s always tough to narrow a squad down to just 15 players, but we’re confident we’ve picked a well-balanced side,” said national selector Shawn Flegler.
“Seeing Meg and Georgia back in action for Victoria has been exciting. Both bring a wealth of experience to the group, which is always crucial during major tournaments.
“Georgia in particular, has had a tough run of injuries, but she’s shown a great deal of resilience and her return is a real boost for the side.”
Australia will begin their World Cup defence on February 12 against New Zealand before pool games against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Australia will warm-up with home T20 and one-day series against Pakistan before travelling to South Africa.
Australia squad: Meg Lanning (capt), Alyssa Healy, Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham.
Australia have a golden opportunity to create history and become the first back-to-back Twenty20 world champions, but they face a formidable challenge led by India and England.
Aaron Finch’s men enjoy the advantage of being the only winners of cricket’s shortest format to have a crack at defending the title on home territory since the T20 World Cup started in 2007.
With a star-studded line-up spearheaded by David Warner, Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell, the Australians also boast all but one of the team that won the tournament last year in the UAE.
Finch, who recently stood down as one-day skipper to focus on T20s, suggested they will be all guns blazing in defence of the trophy.
“If in doubt, be overly aggressive. That is how we want to play,” he said.
“At times that is going to come with high risk and high reward. At times it comes with no reward. That is just a part of T20.”
The tournament’s eighth edition begins on Sunday with Sri Lanka facing Namibia and UAE against Netherlands in a first qualifying round at Geelong, one of seven venues being used for the 45 matches.
Games will also be held in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth and Sydney, with the final on November 13 under lights at the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The top nations join on October 22 when Australia open their defence against Kane Williamson’s New Zealand in Sydney — a repeat of the 2021 final in Dubai where Mitchell Marsh’s unbeaten 77 powered them to an eight-wicket win and maiden crown.
– Blockbuster clash –
Despite a couple of key absences India and England are the favourites along with Australia.
England face fast-improving Afghanistan in Perth for their opener on October 22 but will be missing star batsman Johnny Bairstow after he suffered a serious leg injury in a “freak accident” on the golf course.
A blockbuster clash follows 24 hours later in Melbourne when India take on arch-rivals and 2009 champions Pakistan, with more than 90,000 fans expected.
India suffered a huge blow last week when pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the World Cup with a back injury, further depleting the stocks of a side that has lacked steam in the final overs of the T20 format.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is also absent with a knee problem.
While Rohit Sharma’s side are ranked number one, they haven’t lifted the T20 trophy since 2007 and failed to reach the semi-finals last year.
“Areas of concerns, we have to look at our bowling, what more options we can find in the powerplay, middle and death,” said swashbuckling opener Sharma, who along with run machine Virat Kohli will be key to their chances.
“It will be challenging and we need to find answers, still working towards that.”
– England threat –
World number two England are also a big threat for a first title since 2010 and beat Australia in a warm-up match on Sunday.
They are in Australia on the back of a 4-3 triumph in Pakistan, a series in which captain Jos Buttler attended but played no part as he recovered from a calf injury.
He is though fit for the World Cup and insisted not playing had its benefits.
“I’ve learned lots listening to the group and watching the way they go about things, watching without as much emotion as when you are involved and thinking about what you will do at certain times,” he told reporters.
The West Indies are the only two-time champions — in 2012 and 2016 — but in a shock failed to automatically qualify for the Super 12 stage because they were outside the top-eight-ranked ICC teams at the time.
It means they play the first round of the 16-nation tournament despite now being ranked seven.
Nicholas Pooran captains an inexperienced side after Andre Russell was overlooked and a slew of veterans called time on their international careers.
They are paired with Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe and kick off against the Scots on October 17.
Recently crowned Asian champions Sri Lanka are in the same boat despite now being ranked eight and are grouped with Namibia, Netherlands and UAE in the preliminaries.
The top two from each group join the Super 12 nations — England, New Zealand, Australia and Afghanistan in Group 1; India, Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh in Group 2.
The Women’s Ashes is a trophy in the women’s international cricket series between England and Australia. Women’s Ashes is scheduled on 27 Jan 2022 to be hosted by Australia as per the cricket schedule announced. There will be up to 1 test match 3 T20 matches and 3ODI played between the teams in the month of January 2022 to February 2022. Check Women’s Ashes 2022 Teams Squad, And Teams News.
Women’s Ashes which will be played between England and Australia is scheduled to be between Jan to Feb 2022. Were the first match on 27 January 2022 will be the only test match will be played, the venue of the match is Manuka Oval, Canberra which will be played at 10 AM as per the local time.
Women’s Ashes 2022 Teams Squad
The two teams will be facing each other for this bilateral series. Women’s England And women’s Australia for 1 test match 3 T20 matches and 3ODI. If we compare the series out of 23 series of Women’s Ashes England v/s Australia, the Australian team will be considered as the successful team as they have won 9 matches and England had won 6 matches with 8 draws.
Out of 45 test matches played in Women’s Ashes England v/s Australia, Australia had won 11 matches with 8 losses and 26 matches as a draw. Australian Women’s team had a dominating performance against each format. It will be a great start for both teams and England have an opportunity to dominate this series which can count as a win on head-to-head battles.
Both the teams have not disclosed the squads yet. As soon as the squads are disclosed it will get updated on the page so say tuned on this page. This can be the probable squad for Women’s England v/s Women’s Australia.
This is the match schedule for Women’s England v/s Women’s Australia. The dates are scheduled as the only test match will be played between 27 to 30 January, The T20 match starts from 4th Feb 3 T20 matches will be played on 4/6/10 of February 2022. 3 ODI matches will be played on 13/16/19 of February 2022. The matches will be starting on ending of January were both the teams will lock horns on each other.
Date/Day
FIXTURES
TIME
27th Jan, Thu- 30th Jan, Sun
Australia vs England, Only Test Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra
4:30 AM (27th Jan)
4th Feb, Fri
Australia vs England, 1st T20I Venue: North Sydney Oval, Sydney
1:40 PM
6th Feb, Sun
Australia vs England, 2nd T20I Venue: North Sydney Oval, Sydney
1:40 PMM
10th Feb, Thu
Australia vs England, 3rd T20I Venue: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
1:40 PM
13th Feb, Sun
Australia vs England, 1st ODI Venue: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
4:35 AM (13th Feb)
16th Feb, Wed
Australia vs England, 2nd ODI Venue: Junction Oval, Melbourne
4:35 AM (16th Feb)
19th Feb, Sat
Australia vs England, 3rd ODI Venue: Junction Oval, Melbourne
4:35 AM (19th Feb)
Women’s Ashes 2022 Teams News
There are no updates on Injury yet. stay tuned on this page to get updates on the injury of the team’s squad player.
Lanning’s cafe work and respite from the structures of cricket revived her
Meg Lanning’s time away from the sport provided her a chance to feel normal, and even though she isn’t setting a time limit on how long her career might last as she resumes playing international cricket, she is inspired by what she can still do in the sport.
After Australia won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in August, completing a Grand Slam of victories that also included the Ashes, the ODI World Cup, and the 2020 T20 World Cup, Lanning retired from the sport.
Meg Lanning’s cafe work
Ahead of the series against Pakistan, which starts in Brisbane on Monday and leads into the T20 World Cup in South Africa, she took some time off to travel and worked in a café, “making coffee and washing dishes.”
She then returned to action for Victoria earlier this month.
Initially, she wasn’t really sure how things would turn out at first as she claimed. She merely desired to disconnect from cricket, travel for a short period of time, and give herself some alone time to reflect and determine her next destination.
Lanning stated, “It was quite obvious that I still wanted to play cricket and enjoyed the sport; I just needed some time to feel normal and have a little less rigidity around what I was doing. After doing that, I feel incredibly revived and prepared to go.
“I feel like I still have a lot of time left in the game, both for myself and for the team. I don’t know what the future holds, but I would definitely like to continue playing for as long as I can.”
Lanning took over as captain of Australia at the age of 21, knew she needed to get away from the very controlled and routine-driven nature of the professional sport, and she relished the pace that came with serving lattes and flat whites, which was decidedly different.
She then added, “I thought it was incredibly amazing to just go in, not knowing how the day would go—it might be crowded or quiet—and strike up different discussions with the people. a tad bit more latitude, a tad less structure, a tad more going with the flow, and a tad less worrying about things.
“I accomplished that while working at the café, and I really enjoyed it.”
While Lanning had not set the T20 World Cup title defense as a specific goal for her comeback, it had become her focus after she had made the decision to keep playing and serving as captain late last year. She scored 29 and 61 runs in two WNCL matches for Victoria, and she will now play in three ODIs and three T20Is over the course of the remaining week.
Australian selections have leaned toward tradition for decades. Your best bat is the captain, the wicketkeeper at position seven in Test cricket, or being pushed forward to throw the bat as the opener in shorter varieties of the game.
This round may occasionally be affected by external factors or a rare participant, but it usually quickly returns to the mean.
Australia’s hope for the T20 World Cup
The presence of George Bailey in price has occasionally resulted in a willingness to be entirely different. His time as a player and captain proved that, and those experiences are recent enough for him to be familiar with the advantages of the majority of current players.
The decision to include Scott Boland in the MCG Ashes Test last year was made by Bailey, and it proved to be a brilliant move because, over the next three games, Boland racked up wickets at an Eighties bowling average.
There have been discussions about departing from the conventional wisdom and selecting hitters for the India tour the next year based more on power against spin than incumbent status.
The decision to put fast bowler Pat Cummins in charge of the Test and one-day teams was undoubtedly the result of an unusual combination of circumstance and player, but it is unlikely that it would have happened under a traditionalist chairing the selection conferences.
Bailey doesn’t need to do much for the T20 World Cup, other than copy and paste the information from the same game from the previous year.
He can do this with confidence since home conditions should, in theory, fit them and their style of play considerably better than the wickets in the Arabian Gulf, where Australia’s fast bowlers defied expectations and the odds to win the match.
On fields that ranged from gradual to flat in the UAE, Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood claimed 25 of the 41 wickets that Australia lost. Their group stage will travel to the major capitals this year, including Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide.
Given the recent amount of rain in the majority of these cities and the period of the early season, Australian cricket fields will not be quick bowling havens, but there should still be more bounce and tempo than in other parts of the world.
Due to his 13 wickets at a median of 12 in the match from last year, Adam Zampa is a lock to be the first spinner. The left-arm orthodox Ashton Agar may be the leg-backup, spinner’s but it’s unlikely that they will play together. The fifth bowler’s four overs could be put together using all-rounders higher in the order.
This coming Saturday’s match between Australia and New Zealand in Sydney, as well as the sold-out India vs. Pakistan game the following day in Melbourne, both have a fair chance of failing.
A perfectly good stadium with a roof will be sitting dry and empty three kilometers away in Melbourne’s central business district, increasing the hypnotic sound of droplets drumming on the overhead tin. It appears that there are other cricket positions that could benefit from a creative decision-maker in addition to the Australian chair of selectors.
Jos Buttler is back in his all-action role as captain, opening batsman and wicketkeeper as power-packed England prepare to launch their bid for T20 World Cup glory.
The white ball star missed his side’s recent 4-3 series win in Pakistan with a calf injury and in his absence Alex Hales and Phil Salt impressed at the top of the batting order, with Salt taking the gloves.
But Buttler appeared to end speculation over whether he might relinquish his wicket-keeping role or drop down the batting order in the first game of a three-match series against Australia on Sunday.
The 32-year-old opened alongside Hales and smacked 68 off 32 balls as England defeated the World Cup hosts and holders by eight runs in Perth.
Buttler and Test captain Ben Stokes, who was not in the squad in Pakistan, will boost an already strong batting line-up, with all-rounder Liam Livingstone and “death-overs” specialist Chris Jordan also added into the mix.
Buttler, who succeeded Eoin Morgan as England’s white-ball captain earlier this year, is hoping to lead the reigning 50-over world champions to just their second T20 triumph, 12 years after their first.
England’s Test team have sparkled in recent months under Stokes but Buttler and new white-ball coach Matthew Mott have found success harder to come by, even though they are ranked second in T20 cricket.
England lost T20 and one-day international series against India in July before drawing an ODI series against South Africa and then suffering a defeat at the hands of the Proteas in the subsequent T20 series.
Those results led to questions over whether Buttler, a member of England’s winning team in the 50-over World Cup in 2019, was being asked to juggle too many roles.
That debate intensified in Pakistan, where the recalled Hales and Salt both made their mark after England had dropped struggling opener Jason Roy from the squad.
The emergence of Harry Brook at number five in Pakistan — he was England’s leading run-scorer on tour with 238 runs at a strike-rate of 163 — also complicated the debate about where all-rounder Stokes will fit in the side.
But Buttler has made it clear that he wants Stokes to bat as high up the order as possible and he was sent in at number three against Australia, who are in England’s Super 12 group at the tournament.
Stokes, playing his first T20 match for England since March 2021, managed only nine runs in Perth while Brook came in at four and made 12.
– ‘A bit of tinkering’ –
“There’s always a bit of tinkering, form comes into it,” Mott, previously in charge of Australia’s all-conquering women’s team, told Sky Sports ahead of the series against Australia.
“Obviously Harry Brook has had some really good hit-outs and done well. He’s looked really composed out there and seems to just pick the right times to go for his boundaries.”
Salt kept wicket for Manchester Originals during the Hundred competition in England this year, allowing Buttler to lead the side from the outfield, but the national team skipper was back behind the stumps in Perth.
England are among the World Cup favourites along with Australia and India, but there is a worry about lack of penetration with the ball in a format favouring big-hitting batsmen.
The return of Mark Wood, who topped speeds of 97 miles per hour (156 km/h), and Chris Woakes in Pakistan bolstered England’s pace attack and gave the selectors welcome options.
“Woody got through a few, Woakes got through a couple and we’re building nicely with that depth we are after for the World Cup,” said Mott, who can also call on dangerous left-armer Reece Topley, who offers pace and bounce.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid had a disappointing tour of Pakistan, taking just five wickets at an average of nearly 45 but will again be a key weapon in England’s armoury, giving Buttler welcome variation.
England are in a World Cup group with Afghanistan, Australia, New Zealand and two teams who qualify from the first round.
They open their tournament on October 22 against Afghanistan in Perth.
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