Shelley Nitschke. (Photo Source: Albert Perez/Getty Images)
Post the multi-format series against South Africa which the Australians comprehensively won across every format, head coach Shelly Nitschke’s focus turns to the impending series against Bangladesh, which will feature three ODIs and three T20Is, as well as the T20 World Cup set to be played between September and October later this year. The upcoming series is quite a historic one for the Aussies, since it’s the first time the women’s squad will be touring Bangladesh for a bilateral series, with only three members in the current setup who were a part of the group which had toured Bangladesh 10 years ago.
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Speaking to reporters in Dhaka, Nitschke emphasized the importance of fielding Australia’s top-performing players while also ensuring others gain significant exposure to the local conditions, in light of the three ODIs contributing to the ICC Women’s Championship as well as the pivotal and invaluable experience to be gained by the players in the same conditions where the T20 World Cup will be played later in the year.
“It’s a little bit two-fold, the three ODIs are worth ICC Championship points so they are important to us well, but just to have the opportunity to play the T20s in the conditions that we’ll be playing the World Cup, I think it’s a really important series all around. There’s an element of both every time we get on the field, we want to pick our best XI and win games of cricket but also finding the times to (players) exposure to these conditions and really use this series as well as we can to prepare us for when we come back here in September (is important),” Nitschke said.
There were quite a lot of players representing different franchises in the recently-concluded WPL, with the likes of Alyssa Healy, Grace Harris and Tahlia McGrath briefly returning to Australia once their commitments for their respective franchises concluded after the completion of the group-stage. On the other hand, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, and Phoebe Litchfield chose to spend some time with brief beachside breaks in the Maldives and Goa.
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Considering there were four Australians who were part of the teams competing in the WPL final the past Sunday, the head coach stated that each player will be managed differently according to how their routine was since the past three-four weeks.
“(How we manage those players) is just a little bit different for every individual depending on what they’ve been doing over the last three, four weeks,” Nitschke added.
The conditions could be conducive to spin – Nitschke
With the late withdrawal of Darcie Brown who will be missing out courtesy of a navicular stress injury she picked up as well as Australia opting against the inclusion of another pace bowler to the squad, Nitschke believed they’ve still got a plethora of options as far as their bowling lineup is concerned, especially with respect to spinners who she believes might come to the party, considering the conducive conditions for them in store.
“I think it’s probably just changed (our plans) a little bit. We also believe we’ve got the spinners to fill the void as well and the conditions could be conducive to spin so I feel like we’ve got enough coverage,” Nitschke added.