Australia will crystallise their focus on the T20 World Cup over the next few days against West Indies after a rare series defeat to India last month at the start of the Sophie Molineux era.
The three matches in St Vincent are the last currently scheduled for Australia before June’s World Cup in England, but there will be an additional series against South Africa when the sides reach the UK in the build-up to the tournament.
Still, there is not a huge amount of cricket available to fine-tune plans and work on areas that were exposed by India, who took the T20Is 2-1 at the beginning of the multi-format series which ultimately went Australia’s way by a convincing 12-4 margin.
The majority of the squad in the West Indies remains the same but allrounder Annabel Sutherland, who was Player of the Series against India, has been given a break ahead of the World Cup while Grace Harris has been omitted. That creates an interesting situation because T20 batting is the one element of Sutherland’s game that has yet to click at international level, and arguably more broadly as well with an overall WBBL strike rate of 106.50.
Her absence creates the chance of more game time for others – Australia will be selecting from just 14 for the T20Is with reserve wicketkeeper Tahlia Wilson joining after the WNCL final on March 21 – but also means a key decision on where Sutherland fits into the line-up will be pushed much closer to the World Cup.
In 48 T20Is, Sutherland has only batted 23 times and, given the strength of Australia’s top order, has often only had a handful of deliveries to face. Whereas she has been elevated to No. 5 in ODIs and Test cricket, which has allowed her time to build an innings, her T20 role remains a work in progress. It raised eyebrows when she came in as low as No. 8 in the first T20I against India at the SCG, which was partly attributed to match-ups and wanting to utilise the left-handed Nicola Carey.
“I think we all know how great Bellsy is [and] I certainly think that she’s going to be a main part of our T20 batting line-up at some point, and still offers us some really good hitting down the order at the moment,” Australia coach Shelley Nitschke told reporters. “Her not being here is part of a bigger management plan, but it also provides opportunities and allows us to have a look at a few things that we perhaps need to see before we head across to England and start to get a better idea of what our options are and what our best make-up looks like.”
Sutherland has enjoyed much more success with the ball in T20Is with 44 wickets at 18.63 and an economy rate of 6.44, and since the start of 2024 those numbers are even more impressive: 34 wickets at 14.17 and an economy of 5.79. Therefore, there is a gap to fill with the ball in this series.
Left-armer Lucy Hamilton is in line for a T20I debut after making her first appearances in ODIs and the Test against India, while Megan Schutt was omitted throughout that T20I series.
“We want to win these games and are going pick the team that’s best for the conditions,” Nitschke said. “I think there’ll be some opportunities for people. But first and foremost, we still want to play well. The team was not really happy with how we performed in those T20s more recently. So playing a good brand of cricket and playing well is priority for us and sort of finding a few things out about how we best structure up as well.”
Nitschke said that Harris remained in the frame but added they were almost locked into their squad. “I think we’re really close I think there was a fair bit of talk about the India series, but we didn’t sort of change too much, our top order has been pretty stable for a while. I think it’s just a couple of decisions and a few tweaks we need to make or work out what our best combinations are as well.”
The expectation is that Molineux will be able to play the T20Is after the back injury which curtailed her India series, and Kim Garth has recovered from the quad injury which ruled her out of the ODIs and Test.
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