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In the midst of what is shaping up to be a competition
for spin-bowling positions, Australia is concentrating on their maiden
bilateral tour of Bangladesh as a useful intelligence-gathering trip before the
T20 World Cup later in the year.
They have a multi-format series against South Africa
that will begin at home in late January. The Twenty20 Internationals will be a
helpful warm-up for the World Cup in September, but the first-hand knowledge
gained in Bangladesh may prove to be particularly significant. After the WPL,
the ODI and T20I tour will happen at the end of March.
“We’ve got a couple of venues in Bangladesh that
the World Cup will be played at so that will be part of the investigating
during the tour, about how wickets are going to play,” Shawn Flegler, the
national selector, said.
There will be plenty of spin possibilities available,
regardless of the lineup that Australia chooses for the final team. The
conditions will be left open. The three players selected for the T20I squad to
play South Africa are Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, and Jonassen. Alana
King was not able to get a spot in the squad and will play in the ODIs.
Sophie Molineux, a left-arm spinner and all-rounder
who will captain the Governor General’s XI against South Africa, has returned
from injury, adding to the depth. After suffering an ACL injury that forced her
to take a year-long sabbatical, she lost her central contract in 2022. Given
her great all-around skill set, she might be able to place herself back in the
reckoning.
“She’s been highly-rated by the Australian set-up
for a long time and just great to have her back playing,” Flegler said.
“It’s pretty clear having a left-arm orthodox spinner playing
international cricket is pretty good. We’ve been blessed with the amount of
spin options we’ve had; we’ve had a left-arm spinner either Jess Jonassen or
Soph involved in our World Cups over the last seven campaigns, so we’ll see
that continuing, I’m sure. It’s going to be a tight squeeze over the next few
series, but really blessed to have those options available to us.”