Key events
Righto, we are going to have some cricket. A large rope is hauled around the outfield as Georgia Voll and Beth Mooney mark their guards. Renuka Singh will start with the ball for India. Let’s play!
The players head out for the anthems but there is still a bit of mizzle lingering in Sydney. Hopefully we’ll be underway shortly.
Teams: Some shocks in store in Molineux’s first match in charge! Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath and veteran quick Megan Schutt are left out of the side. Right arm seamer and left handed batter Nicola Carey is recalled to the side for the first time since 2022, she was impressive for Mumbai Indians in the recent WPL.
Australia: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux (c), Kim Garth, Darcie Brown
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh Thakur
India win the toss and will bowl first
Good news! The drizzle seems to be abating and the covers are being peeled off. The captain’s go out to toss up. A special moment for Sophie Molineux albeint the coin does not land her way. India insert the hosts on what should be a green-ish wicket with something in it for the bowler’s first up.
Sure enough there is some drizzle around in Sydney and the toss is delayed. The covers are over the wicket but the players are doing some warm ups on the outfield so it can’t be that heavy. Fingers crossed it blows over sharpish.
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the first T20I between Australia and India from Sydney as a new dawn breaks for Australian’ women’s cricket. Sophie Molineux will captain the side into a new era after Alyssa Healy announced she is calling time on her storied career.
Healy will take the reins for one last time during the ODI and one off Test part of India’s tour but today marks the first match in charge for Molineux. The decision to make th 28 year old left arm spinning all rounder raised a few eyebrows in some quarters, Molineux has an excellent track record in International cricket when she gets on the park but her career has been dogged by injury and she has missed a lot of cricket over the last few years.
“I think it’ll be pretty surreal” The new captain said in the build up to the series starting on what it will be like to step out with the arm band for the first time. “I’ve got a bit of family coming. It sort of has slipped into my mind the last couple of days how it’s going to feel to lead the team out and to sing the anthem.”
India will be the toughest of opponents in this series, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side are the reigning World Champions in ODI cricket and are looking to dominate the women’s game across formats in the way the Aussies have over the last decade.
Plenty to get stuck into then, the toss should be incoming, though my sources tell me there is some rain around in Sydney…
