Tune in for the latest cricket news, interviews and analysis from the ABC team in the Grandstand Cricket Podcast.<\/p>\n
This world cup will almost certainly be the last 50-over contest for Healy, who is yet to set a retirement date but makes no secret of the fact she regularly weighs it up.<\/p>\n
Ellyse Perry’s future is less clear, with hopes of playing on until at least 2028, but veteran seamer Megan Schutt has signalled her retirement in the next 12 months.<\/p>\n
The nature of Australia’s dominance this century means it is hard to define when one golden era ends and another one starts.<\/p>\n
But of the squad that won back the trophy the last time the tournament was in India, in 2013, only Healy, Perry, and Schutt remain.<\/p>\n
Ashleigh Gardner and Beth Mooney joined the group by the 2017 tournament, while the likes of Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes have retired since the last edition in 2022.<\/p>\n
And for almost all those household names, this will be the last chance to become back-to-back winners, given the four years between tournaments.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully we can break that stat,” Schutt told AAP.<\/p>\n
“It definitely can (become a big motivating factor). I don’t think we’d be doing it for the stat; it wouldn’t be something on our whiteboard before a game.<\/p>\n
“But little things like that are great because you’re creating history.”<\/p>\n
Australia regularly enters global tournaments as favourites and has won seven of the 12 ODI events.<\/p>\n
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Tahlia McGrath says Australia is hungry for more success, trying to be the first nation to win consecutive women’s world cups since the 1980s.<\/p>\n
But they were narrowly beaten in the final in 2000, edged out in 2009, and shocked in the 2017 semifinal when victims of a Harmanpreet Kaur assault for India.<\/p>\n
“It just shows how hard it is to win world cups,” vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said.<\/p>\n
“The tournament play is at times very unpredictable. You can’t have an off game, and the finals are so clutch.<\/p>\n
“This tournament’s still the pinnacle of all of them, the one that you want to win. Being reigning champs, we really want to go back-to-back.<\/p>\n
“It’s so hard to do that.”<\/p>\n
India again looms as Australia’s biggest threat, having challenged them in a lead-in series and holding the advantage of home conditions for the finals.<\/p>\n