'Hungry' Aussies hit the ground running in Chandigarh

Australia have arrived in India fresh, hungry and with their sights set on history.

Alyssa Healy’s squad commenced their ODI World Cup campaign in typically clinical fashion in Chandigarh on Friday, enjoying their first hit out ahead of the first of three bilateral one-dayers against India.

Rolling up to the new Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, which will host an international match for the first time on Sunday, the Australian group brushed off any lingering jetlag and got their first taste of the conditions with a centre-wicket nets session.

The only absentee was Grace Harris, whose departure for the subcontinent was delayed by illness. She will join the group on Saturday. Spinner Sophie Molineux, who is not expected to feature in the bilateral series as she continues working her way back to full fitness following knee surgery in January, trained alongside her teammates.

The three-game ODI series will serve as the ideal preparation for the ICC tournament beginning September 30, and Australia are aiming to translate their familiarity with India in general to success at a range of unfamiliar venues.

Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium will host its first international on Sunday // Sam Gosling/cricket.com.au

“We’re looking to play our brand, our style, and just fine tune a few things before the big World Cup,” Australia vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said of how the group planned to approach the bilateral one-dayers.

“We’ve been pretty settled with our squad for quite a while now, so we’ve been pretty lucky with that … the only thing is that we’re here for a very long time, and we’ve got 15 in the World Cup squad and 17 over here at the moment, so it’s a really good opportunity to play a few players, play some different roles.

“We’ve got so much talent, so much depth over here that it doesn’t really matter what team we throw out or what batting order … we’re in pretty good hands.”

Australia hope to become the first team since 1988 to win back-to-back women’s ODI World Cups, while McGrath admitted their semi-final defeat to South Africa at last year’s T20 World Cup still stung.

“We’ve very hungry,” she said.

“ODI World Cups are special, they’re probably the pinnacle and for the players that were in Dubai, it adds that extra bit of motivation, it was not a nice feeling the way we exited, and then the extra little bit of motivation as well that we want to be the first team in a while to win back-to-back ODI World Cups.”

‘We’ve got so much talent, so much depth over here’ // Sam Gosling/cricket.com.au

Australia’s last three visits to India, in 2018, 2022 and 2023, have been largely based in Mumbai.

They are far less familiar with the World Cup round-stage venues, however. They have not played an international game in Visakhapatnam since 2012 or the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo since 2016, and are yet to visit either Indore or Guwahati.

The majority of the eight teams competing in the World Cup, even hosts India, are in similar positions, given Indore has never hosted women’s internationals, Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium hasn’t staged women’s ODIs, Visakhapatnam most recent ODIs were in 2014, and none of those cities have featured on WPL schedules.

With that in mind, McGrath said Australia could still leverage their familiarity with the ups and downs of life on tour on the subcontinent.

“We have been quite lucky, we feel like we’re travelling to India every second month, almost,” she said.

“We’ve spent a lot of time over here, played in these conditions a lot, but we’re playing in some parts at the moment that we’re not very familiar with.

“It’s about learning the conditions, adapting to the conditions, being flexible, and communicating really well as a group, because it is a little bit foreign to us and no matter where you are in India, you can get thrown up very different conditions from day to day.”

Australia have not played an international series since their T20 trip to New Zealand in March, and their last one-day series was during the multi-format Ashes in January.

They did not spend the winter idle, however, coming together for a team bonding camp in the Northern Territory in late May before regular training camps in Brisbane through the winter before the majority of the players flew to the United Kingdom for The Hundred.

That bond will also be critical throughout the weeks ahead, with Australia to spend at least seven weeks – and hopefully an eighth for the World Cup finals – in India and Sri Lanka.

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“We’ve been able to stay really connected as a group,” McGrath said.

“Some zoom calls, lots of communication, and we’ve been really deliberate with our own individual prep and how that looks specifically for our roles in the team.

“We feel like we’re making really good inroads to how we want to play our cricket and how we want to go about our cricket.

“We’re really lucky in this squad that we’ve got so many leaders within … we’ve delegated a few things, we’ve got a social committee, we’ve got lots of people in charge of different areas.

“We brought so many Australian snacks, a coffee machine over with us – there’s so many different things going on, run clubs, I could go on.

“We’ve just got to embrace seven weeks in India (and) we’ve got each other to get ourselves through, and at the end of the day, we’re here to win a World Cup so that’s pretty good draw card to keep your eyes on the prize.”

Qantas ODI tour of India 2025

September 14: First ODI, Mullanpur Cricket Stadium, 6pm AEST

September 17: Second ODI, Mullanpur Cricket Stadium, 6pm AEST

September 20: Third ODI, Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 6pm AEST

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kranti Gaud, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Sneh Rana

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Nicole Faltum, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Charli Knott, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

2025 Women’s ODI World Cup

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

Australia’s warm-up match

September 28: v England, Bengaluru, Bengaluru, 7:30pm AEST

Australia’s group stage matches

October 1: v New Zealand, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 7:30pm AEST

October 4: v Sri Lanka, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7:30pm AEST

October 8: v Pakistan, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 8:30pm AEDT

October 12: v India, ACA-VDCA Stadium Visakhapatnam, 8:30pm AEDT

October 16: v Bangladesh, ACA-VDCA Stadium Visakhapatnam, 8:30pm AEDT

October 22: v England, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 8:30pm AEDT

October 25: v South Africa, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 8:30pm AEDT

Finals

Semi-final 1: Guwahati or Colombo*, October 29, 8:30pm AEDT