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It was a strange sight. Captain Alyssa Healy, still
wearing her whites and wearing the wicketkeeping pads, was spotted taking
pictures of the winners just after Australia lost to India in the women’s Test
match for the first time ever. When she entered the press conference to field a
flurry of questions, she was wearing her pads.
Cricket fans in Australia are so accustomed to their
women’s team’s success that some people find it surprising when they lose. They
have won seven ODI World Cups and six T20 World Cups, including back-to-back
titles in 2020 and 2023.
However, they only managed to hold onto the Women’s
Ashes in 2023 by drawing the multi-format series. They lost every white-ball
series 2-1 against England, but they won the one-off Test match at Trent
Bridge. In a T20I played at North Sydney Oval that year, the West Indies also
set a record.
You can ask yourself, “Are the heydays
gone?” following their eight-wicket defeat in the one-off Test match at
Wankhede to start their multi-format tour of India. Are they long since past
their best? Is this the end of the golden age?
“There is always a lot of expectation and
external noise about our team and how they are performing,” Healy said.
“They are so used to us winning that at times they forget that we have
seen a lot of change over the last 12-18 months that goes unnoticed external to
our group. Within the group, we are comfortable about where we are at and the
progression we are on.”
This was Australia’s first Test match in India in
nearly forty years. They arrived in the city last week and began training as
India and England were playing a Test match in Navi Mumbai. They also played a
one-day red-ball match against a Mumbai XI last Sunday. However, they were
unable to prevent losing the Test match after India finished the last rituals
an hour after midday on the fourth day.
“There is no real time to learn, adapt and find a
style of play,” she said. “It was a tough ask but I am really proud
of our group and the fight we showed.
“Standing there at the [presentation], when Anjum
[Chopra, former India captain] asked me a question, I said yup, imagine playing
two more of these. That would be an unbelievable experience for our group and
probably a true test of both side’s abilities. In a one-off Test [with] India
playing in their home conditions, you’d expect them to be heavy favourites.
We’d love to see more and more, and it would create a real contest in three
games.”
Points were at stake during the entire series when
India visited Australia in 2021 for a multi-format tour that included the
pink-ball Test. Three ODIs and T20Is, each with four points for a Test victory
and two for each white-ball win, came after a Test match. Australia won the
multi-format trophy when they emerged victorious in the ODI and T20I series and
drew the day-night Test match. However, there are no points at stake in the
current tour. Therefore, according to Healy, the outcome “feels meaningless
to a sense”.
“It is a bit easier to move on [from the
loss],” she said. “I sit here disappointed that we couldn’t win the
Test match. When we were not playing for points, or series points, or for a
[specific] trophy, it does make it a little bit of novelty because you just
heard me ten minutes ago say that I want to play more Test cricket. The fact
that it sort of feels meaningless to a sense feels disappointing to me.”