Australian captain to miss England grudge match, World Cup campaign in doubt

Australia’s captain Alyssa Healy will miss the World Cup game against bitter rivals England on Wednesday night due to a calf injury.

Healy, who has made centuries in each of the past two games of the tournament against India and Bangladesh, strained her calf at training on Saturday, and has not recovered sufficiently to be considered for the England game.

Deputy Tahlia McGrath will captain in Healy’s absence, while the selectors will also need to reconsider the batting order.

Beth Mooney is the likely substitute for Healy with the wicket-keeping gloves.

“Really unfortunate there for Midge with just a slight calf strain, but we know we’ve got some options,” Australia coach Shelley Nitschke said of Healy.

“We’re just going to keep assessing her day by day, and give her every opportunity to play the next game against South Africa, and then just see how that plays out with the rehab - but just keep assessing it and hopefully, she gets up.”

Healy has battled injury in recent times, with a plantar fascia problem forcing her out of the T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE last year, where Australia were eliminated in the semi-finals.

She also fought through injury to play in the day/night Ashes Test against England at the MCG in January after missing much of the summer with knee and foot trouble.

Calf injuries can be stubborn issues to shrug off, and Healy must also be considered doubtful for at least Australia’s final qualifying game against South Africa, if not the semi-finals. Ellyse Perry battled calf cramps before this World Cup, with Healy joking, “She is just old, she’s fine”.

Australia, England and South Africa have already qualified for the tournament semi-finals, with hosts India fighting to avoid a major embarrassment by securing the final spot.

The Australians wiped the floor with England during the Ashes series played earlier this year, forcing a change of coach and numerous selection shuffles for the away side.

But Healy’s opening partner Phoebe Litchfield insisted the world’s No.1 side is preparing to face rejuvenated England, particularly after their defeat of India, led by a century from skipper Heather Knight.

“We know England are top two, three in the world, and we’ve played them a lot quite recently,” Litchfield said after the Bangladesh game.

“They offer so much with the bat and the ball that you can’t take them lightly at all … and we know that even though we came off the Ashes 16-nil, we know that they’ll come pretty hard, so we’re pretty excited for that.”

“Indore, when we played there last, was a really good wicket, so I can imagine it’ll be a high run-scoring contest.

“So it’s just like playing the first ODI back in North Sydney [the start of the Ashes]. We’ve got to come with open eyes, open minds, and hopefully have a good day out there.”

Australia and England are the last two unbeaten teams remaining in the World Cup.

Twenty-two-year-old back-up opener Georgia Voll is the most likely player to slot into Healy’s spot at the top of the order.

“The one is Georgia Voll that’s here and has filled that role before, but we’ll sit down today and just make sure we’re getting our match-ups right and come to a final decision,” Nitschke said.

“She’s the obvious choice, but we’ve certainly got some depth there in our batting so there are some opportunities outside of that move as well.”

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