INDW vs AUSW | Alyssa Healy ruled out of fifth T20I due to calf strain
Australia's stand-in captain Alyssa Healy will miss the fifth and final T20I game against India due to a calf strain she suffered during the fourth T20I. Stand-in vice captain Tahlia McGrath will lead her country in the absence of Healy for the first time in the final game of the series.
Australia are leading the five-match T20I series against India by 3-1 currently but have suffered a major blow ahead of the final game of the series. The team will miss their stand-in captain and key batter Alyssa Healy after she sustained a calf strain during the fourth T20I, which even rendered her unable to field as Beth Mooney kept the wickets. Tahlia McGrath will lead the squad in the absence of Alyssa Healy while Mooney is expected to don the gloves once again for the fixture.
Healy will undergo scans after returning to Australia to check the extent of the damage considering future assignments. The injury has put a halt to her record streak of 107 T20Is for Australia in a row as well. McGrath expressed her confidence to take over the leadership duties, citing her captaincy for Adelaide Strikers during WBBL as an example.
"I'm new to leadership in this team and been learning a lot on the fly and it probably worked in my favour that I didn't have long to think about it.I was strangely calm out there, I had a lot of support. I had to try and stay calm and keep the team calm,” McGrath stated, reported ESPNcricinfo.
"I've come off the back of captaining Strikers for six weeks where it's high pressure. The best players in the world are there and that's what it felt like, I was captaining the Strikers with a few extra players."
The unavailability of Healy also means that Australia will have to ponder upon its opening partnership. Phoebe Litchfield might take the opening spot while Elysse Perry is another contender. McGrath claimed that they have plenty of options to choose from as an opener.
"We haven't decided yet. But I think the good news is we've got a lot of options, whether Pheebs comes in, she's done it in the Big Bash, myself, Pez . We've got so many options but we'll have to wait and see,” she explained.
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