by If you’re playing against the Australian women’s cricket team, there are times when the only option is to prepare. Because they very rarely lose in any format, they tend to react to these anomalies by proving how unusual they are. For England Women, visiting Australia for a Women’s Ashes series of three one-day internationals, three Twenty20s and a day-night Test, this is now the position they find themselves in.
Move back two places on the list of major World Cup semi-final failures at 50 in 2017, when Australia were ambushed by Harmanpreet Kaur during one of the batting assaults of all time. Outraged to see England then defeat India in the final, Australia broke down in tears: undefeated in series in four Women’s Ashes, three T20 World Cups, three T20 tri-series, 14 bilateral T20 series, 14 bilateral series ODIs, the Commonwealth Games and the upcoming 50-over World Cup, on their way to a world record consecutive ODI wins of 26.
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It took seven years for them to experience their next major defeat, but it had to come eventually. Last October, in another World Cup semi-final, this time in the T20 version, Australia was defeated by South Africa. Once again their winners spent their energy in surprise and capitulated in the final, and once again the Australians were not happy. If you thought that having already won this trophy six times would appease any of the current players, you would apparently be wrong.
And now it’s England’s turn to face this team soon after this irritation. We don’t yet know if the response will be as strong: Australia have only played a few one-day series, having easily beaten India and New Zealand in six matches. The multi-format Women’s Ashes is a different animal, and there are plenty of questions about the role of the Test Match, as there is at the end of the series. But history suggests it will take a lot for England to catch Australia on any of their styles of play.
It doesn’t help that the series begins with the ODIs, Australia’s strongest format, before moving on to the T20s, England’s strongest format. Australia’s depth is key. Take the example of left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen. She is 10th in the world for white-ball international wickets, bowls fewer than four overs in a day and bowls a ball in T20, striking with a wicket every five overs and three overs respectively, and she can bat – and she can’t not even make the team.
Even without her, the Australian team has 14 players who all look like walk-on starters for 11 spots. If the captain, Alyssa Healy, is hampered in keeping wicket because of a knee problem, she throws the gloves to another specialist, Beth Mooney. Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll are 21 years old and already having hundreds a day. Ash Gardner could play as a specialist spinner or specialist six hitter. Grace Harris is one of the longest throwers in the world.
Alana King and Georgia Wareham play contrasting styles of leg spin and can both smash the ball, and more power comes from Tahlia McGrath, while Annabel Sutherland and Ellyse Perry are the innings builders. Plus the last three, all in bowls, completing the most specialized rapids: the precision of Kim Garth, the rhythm and bounce of Darcie Brown, and the UFO swing of Megan Schutt.
It’s a frankly unfair range of abilities, with Sutherland coming off back-to-back tons in one day and a champion of Perry’s caliber sometimes benched for the shortest format. The potential configurations are endless. Opponents can plan everything and still be surprised.
So that’s the task facing England, a team much more reliant on a few key hitters like Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight, with other contributions around the edges. They can’t take on most teams to attack the big guns. They have to overcome all the permutations of a team that could field 10 competent batters and eight capable bowlers.
With all three days in record time, a bad week could mean going 6-0 on aggregate, necessitating sweeping the T20s to stay in touch. The final match will be an occasion no matter what, the first women’s Test at the MCG since 1949, played under lights with the hope of a big crowd. But with victory worth four points and the white-ball matches worth two, England’s first task is to ensure that, at that point, the test still counts towards the result.
