Cricket<\/a> Australia unveiled her as the retiring Alyssa Healy\u2019s replacement ahead of vice-captain Tahlia McGrath and star allrounder Ash Gardner.<\/p>\nBowling allrounder Molineux has played for Australia since 2018 but injuries sidelined her for more than two years from 2021, before she missed the most recent Ashes with a knee issue.<\/p>\n
Injury problems resurfaced during the recent multi-format series against India as Molineux took on the T20I captaincy.<\/p>\n
A back issue meant she neither bowled her spin nor batted as captain in the first two matches of the subsequent multi-format tour of the Wests Indies, and eventually missed the last two to rest.<\/p>\n
Flegler said the latest setback was \u201cnot ideal\u201d but that the plan had always been to take a conservative approach to Molineux\u2019s fitness ahead of this year\u2019s T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
He nevertheless acknowledged it was \u201cunprecedented\u201d for Australia to bestow the captaincy upon a player subject to such uncertainty around her fitness.<\/p>\n
Lucy Hamilton receives her first international cap from former Australia captain Alyssa Healy. Photograph: Steve Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably a fair point to say it\u2019s unprecedented, but we think on balance, she was the candidate that was the best option for a number of reasons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer on-field experience and success that she\u2019d had, and her off-field connection and a vision for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molineux will take part in upcoming training camps with the squad and is on track to be fit for the World Cup that begins in the UK in June.<\/p>\n
Flegler has not had any second thoughts about the captaincy decision, though he conceded Australia would have to remain open to change should more long-term injuries arise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re comfortable internally that it was the right decision for this group at this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy to be judged on that down the track. If it turns out that Soph is injured again long-term, we\u2019ll have to reassess where we go with the captaincy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t just one meeting, let\u2019s make a call on something, there are lots of discussions that take place, and not just among selectors … [but] I totally get that it might seem a bit odd from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flegler\u2019s comments come as Australia revealed its national contract list, which features uncapped Chloe Ainsworth and teenage allrounder Lucy Hamilton for the first time.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, 19, has made her Australian debut in all three formats since the beginning of March, while fellow allrounder Ainsworth is viewed as a longer-term prospect for the international side.<\/p>\n
Tayla Vlaeminck and uncapped Tess Flintoff did not have their contracts renewed, though Vlaeminck returned to the field in the \u201cGreen vs Gold\u201d domestic match this week after more than 500 days out with a shoulder problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian selector Shawn Flegler concedes the decision to hand Sophie Molineux the national team captaincy would need to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-519194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}