Australia announce white-ball squad for women’s Ashes, Sophie Molineux out with injury

Australia have announced a 15-member squad for the upcoming women’s Ashes, slated to begin on January 12 at North Sydney Oval. Captain Alyssa Healy, who missed the India series due to a knee injury, has been named in the squad but it's unclear if the veteran will be keeping wickets in the series. She featured in the playing XI against New Zealand but Healy refrained from keeping. 

She has also been added to the Governor-General squad that will play a 50-over warm-up game against England on January 9. Speaking on the same, Healy mentioned that it would be a good test for her knee. The Queensland-born added that the goal is to take things slow as she doesn’t want to blow things up and put her knee in further trouble.

“That'll be a great opportunity for me to take the gloves for a little bit and see how everything's progressing. I can't really give you any more information than that. It's kind of play it by ear at the moment to see how everything pulls up,” Healy was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. 

“Having an angry joint in there and flaring that up, and knowing the really tight schedule with the Ashes as well, probably managing that and not wanting to blow it up too much that it's going to affect my ability to play at all. So that'll be the real test, I think, in the next 10 days, moving into the series as to how that pulls up, how it responds to keeping again, and we'll just assess as we go,” she added.

Meanwhile, Sophie Molineux has been ruled out of the series with a knee injury. She picked up the injury in the last edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) but continued playing and in the series against India, the matter became worse. Now, she will be undergoing surgery as physiotherapist Kate Beerworth confirmed.

“Sophie Molineux will undergo left knee surgery next month, following that we will provide further updates on an anticipated return date,” Beerworth said.

Youngster Georgia Voll, on the other hand, has maintained her place in the squad. She was fantastic against India but unfortunately, didn’t get game time against the White Ferns as Healy opened alongside Beth Mooney. Meanwhile, Grace Harris will not be featured in the ODIs but will be joining the squad for the T20Is.

Australia ODI and T20I squad for Women's Ashes

Alyssa Healy (capt), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20s only), Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham.