Alyssa Healy plays down rivalry rumours with Harmanpreet Kaur after visitors clinch T20I series

Australian women’s team captain Alyssa Healy has brushed aside any possible animosity with her Indian counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur after the visitors clinched the T20I series by 2-1 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday. Prior to this India, the home side won the sole Test at Wankhede before getting whitewashed by 3-0 in the ODIs.

“I would probably just summarise it to competitive cricket is going out there, doing our job for the side,” said Alyssa.

During the Test, Harmanpreet had thrown the ball at Alyssa in frustration while she was batting, and the Australian skipper simply smiled back. Alyssa took a defensive pose and the ball hit her bat to race to the boundary, while Harman’s appeal for obstructing the field was rejected. “We both approach it (captaincy roles) very differently, and that’s over to her to deal with that. But, from my point of view, there’s no animosity there,” said Alyssa during the post-match interaction.

“I’m all for, you know, if I need to be given a send off, then so be it. I’m all for it because at the end of the day, I’m chirpy behind the stump. So if you’re willing to dish it out, you’ve got to be able to cop it,” she added. Alyssa backed Harmanpreet and the India team to come out stronger from this series.

“She has probably had really two hard series on the trot and this series has been a really long one. I’m sure that the Indian team will bounce back and obviously reflect on what these last couple of series has meant for their side,” Alyssa said. Alyssa felt the India tour was a big stepping stone for Australia’s preparations for the next two global white-ball events — the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year and the 50-over World Cup in India in 2025.

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“We’ve gained some valuable information at the same time. Probably some areas where we can improve and some areas that probably that we’re nailing at the moment. “It’s pretty cut-throat when you come into a World Cup. You’ve got to win games and you’ve got to get yourselves over the line. We’re going to have a squad to do it. It’s just probably nailing down our plans and probably our shot selection, more importantly, over here,” she said.

Alyssa added that just two-and-a-half days of bad cricket during the entire month-long tour had led to the Test loss and a rare T20I match defeat. “We’re here in India over a month that we’re traditionally at home spending time with our families and it’s the first time we’ve been away this time of year.

“Literally, the girls have just jumped in and played some good, hard cricket. I didn’t hear one complaint, didn’t hear one whinge. In the month that we’ve been here, we played two-and-a-half bad days of cricket — one-and-a-half days in the Test match and one T20,” Alyssa added. Alyssa, who was adjudged ‘Player of the Series’ in T20Is, credited the team for the white-ball success.

“I don’t think I was overly deserving of the player of the series. I’ll accept it gracefully, but I thought our bowlers bounced back beautifully in the last two T20Is. Phoebe Litchfield and Elise Perry played some crucial knocks as well… it’s a team award,” she said.

(With PTI inputs)